Individual Development Plans: Content and Uses

Recently, we were working with a client to define content to be included in a front-line leadership training program. Surprisingly, we discovered that we didn’t have a common definition of individual development plans. For the client, an IDP meant a specific plan to improve performance, usually because the individual wasn’t meeting performance goals. For us, individual development plans are the output of creating specific plans for development of key skills and abilities, often for a future role.

What are individual development plans?

This got us thinking. How do others define individual development planning? We did a quick survey of other clients and here are some of the ways clients define an IDP:

From a global brand: Individual Development Plans (IDP’s) are a self-motivated effort targeted to assist you in obtaining your personal and professional career goals while meeting [our] organizational goals.
From a biotech organization: Development plans are the means to ensure consistently high individual performance through continuous learning.
From a financial services organization: Individual development plans are documented efforts individuals make to leverage strengths and address areas of need in employee growth.

What seems to be common for those we surveyed was a desire to follow the 70-20-10 approach to development (some variation of 70% of development coming from on-the-job activities, 20% learning from others and 10% from formal training).

What is included in individual development plans?

We also were able to take a look at the contents of others’ development plans, and found that most contained these elements:

Demographic information about current role
Listing of strengths (sometimes gathered through connected assessments or performance reviews)
Listing of development needs (sometimes with a priority included)
Listing of development activities (surprisingly, most of these were from the 10% or formal learning rather than the goal of on-the-job experiences)
Timing (although many did not include timing or other S-M-A-R-T based goals in the planning)
Feedback and monitoring notes (someplace to track progress and report on progress)

Here is an example of a generic PPS Example Development Plan Form.

For those of us in talent development roles, individual development plans can guide us as we conduct needs assessments and structure and sequence learning. Aside from simply asking about needs, taking a read through IDPs gives us insights as to the patterns of development needs present in our organizations.