Business Core · HR · Module
Development
Building capability in people already present — usually cheaper than hiring it, always slower, and rarely planned as deliberately.
The idea
How it works
Most capability is built by doing the work, not by attending anything. The practical consequence is that development planning is largely about assigning the right work rather than booking the right course.
Development also competes with delivery. Someone learning is producing less than someone competent, and pretending otherwise is why development plans quietly stop being followed by March.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Start from the gap, not the catalogue
Development chosen from what is available rather than from what is needed produces activity and no capability change.
- 02
Assign the work that builds it
The strongest development lever is which projects someone is given. Use it deliberately rather than by availability.
- 03
Budget the productivity cost
Learning has a cost in output. Planning for it is what keeps the plan from being abandoned under pressure.
- 04
Check whether the capability arrived
Attendance is not capability. The test is whether the person can now do the thing.
One level in
The components of development
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
The development plan
Per person: what capability is being built, through what work, over what period.
LearnThe assignment record
Which projects were given for development reasons rather than for delivery reasons.
LearnThe capability check
Evidence that the capability now exists — demonstrated rather than attended.
Learn
Development that costs the organisation nothing in short-term output is usually not producing much capability either.
The other modules in hr
Workforce planning
Working out what capability the organisation will need, when, and whether it currently has it. The gap between the two drives everything else in this object.
LearnRecruitment and selection
Finding candidates and choosing between them in a way that predicts performance rather than comfort.
LearnRetention and engagement
Keeping the capability the organisation has already paid to build, and understanding why people stay or leave before the pattern becomes a problem.
Learn