Personal Development Planning

Personal Development Planning

• This is the process of improving oneself through conscious habits and activities
• Personal Development Planning (PDP) helps one recognize achievements, understand skills gained, and plan for further enhancement and new skill development

Importance of PDP

• Essential because industries continually evolve, requiring people to change and develop to avoid obsolescence
• Taking personal responsibility for self-development is necessary for continuous growth

PDP Characteristics

• Keeping a record of achievements, learning experiences, and future plans
• It involves recording achievements, personal reflections, and plans for self-improvement
• Regular practice of PDP leads to increased awareness of skills and further development
• PDP improves the sense of personal achievement and focus on goals and identifying gaps

Driving Forces Behind PDP

• Reflection to understand how past skills were acquired and reasons for successes and failures
• Planning the development of skills needed for the future, career advancement, or personal goals.

Stages in Personal Development

• Understanding oneself, including skills, attributes and style
• Deciding on future aspirations
• Determining required learning or changes to bridge the gap
• Identifying and applying methods of learning
• Assessing progress

Self-Awareness

• The ability to see oneself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection.
• It falls under the study area of Social Science

Social Science vs. Physical Science

• Social sciences include disciplines like Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, and Economics
• Social Sciences investigate the interrelationships among people
• Science covers all matter, living and non-living, composed of atoms and molecules
• Human behavior cannot be understood through physical or biological sciences alone

Five Core Aspects of Self-Awareness

• Core Self-evaluation: Understanding underlying personality
• Values: Personal standards and moral judgment
• Cognitive Style: Information acquisition and evaluation (covered in Lecture 2)
• Attitudes towards Change: Adaptability and responsibility
• Emotional Intelligence: Emotional awareness and control

Cognitive Style

• Cognitive is derived from the Latin "cognito," meaning to apprehend or understand
• Cognition is a general term and encompasses mental processes for people to become aware of the world
• It is further explained in Lecture 2 with individual student evaluations

Importance of Reflective Practice

• Learning effectively requires more tha just experience
• One needs to reflect on an experience to maximize the learning potential
• It is an important state of the PDP process
• Critical to improving, developing skills, and learning from successes and failures

Reflection vs Reflective Practice

• Reflection is deliberately revisiting an experience to explore and extract learning.
• Reflection promotes deep learning for personal and professional development

Elements of Reflective Practice

• Requires individual learners to engage with an experience
• Involves critical reflection on that experience
• Deduces the lessons that need to be applied to future activities

Approaches to Learning

• Surface Learning: Intention to complete tasks and memorize information.
• Deep Learning: Seek understanding, relate concepts to existing experiences, and critically evaluate events

Models of Reflective Practice

• Gibbs Model
• Peters DATA model

Gibb's Reflective Cycle

• Provides a structured approach to reflecting on experiences, with questions to guide each stage.

The DATA Model

• DESCRIBE: Identify the area needing improvement.
• ANALYSE: Determine the factors contributing to the problem area.
• THEORISE: Suggest ways to improve the practice.
• ACT: Implement new practices and see how effective they are.

Personal Development Plan (Professional Context)

• In the professional realm, a PDP includes goal or gap analysis, in order to reach goals effectively
• A successful PDP involves
  • Employing SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to reach target
  • SW (Internal Factors)
• OT (External Factors)
• SO (Favorable)
• WT (Unfavorable)

SWOT Analysis

• A tool to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in relation to specific goals
• SWOT Analysis assists in focusing activities where one is strong with available opportunities

Strengths in SWOT Analysis

• Assessing skills or experience
• What the person dose well
• What others see as being strengths

Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis

• Areas for improvement
• Things done badly
• Things to avoid
• Discrepancies between one's perception and others' views

Opportunities in SWOT Analysis

• Available resources
• Networking events
• Trends from graduate schemes

Threats in SWOT Analysis

• Obstacles faced
• Weaknesses threatening opportunities
• Past experiences of failure

Goal Setting

• Applying SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-based, Time-specific)

Solid Goal Characteristics

• It is important to remember the acrony, SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-based, Time-specific) in goal setting

Useful Resources

• "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R Covey (2004), emphasizing beginning with the end in mind.
• Locky and Latham Model: This conceptualizes the relationship between goals, performance, and satisfaction.

PDP Exercise

• Define a specific goal or identify a skill gap.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis related to that goal or gap.
• Develop a strategic plan with actionable steps to achieve the goal/gap.

Final Thoughts

• Make PDP a regular habit to see a gap in skills or when setting a target for life