How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?
You want your organization to achieve its
God-given mission. To achieve the mission,
you want your staff to carry out their job
responsibilities, including implementing the
strategic plan. And you want your professional
development program to better support all of this.
What’s next? Look at the characteristics of your professional development program. To get an idea of how you can improve your organization’s professional development program, take the following self-assessment (download). Rate each item in terms of how it describe your professional development program. Use the following scale:
4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely
Our professional development…
___ Is designed to help us achieve our mission.
___ Supports implementation of our strategic plan.
___ Addresses current/future job responsibilities.
___ Helps individual staff members achieve their annual growth goals.
___ Is ongoing.
___ Is research-based.
___ Is differentiated.
___ Is based on an assessment of our current reality.
___ Is designed using a process involving planning, implementation, and evaluation.
___ Takes place in a variety of ways, in addition to workshops.
___ Involves using new knowledge and skills during the training.
___ Involves reflection.
___ Involves teams.
___ Involves follow-up.
___ Results in us applying knowledge and skills (not in having knowledge and skills).
___ Helps us achieve our mission.
Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:
*This blog entry is part of a 6-part series:
What’s next? Look at the characteristics of your professional development program. To get an idea of how you can improve your organization’s professional development program, take the following self-assessment (download). Rate each item in terms of how it describe your professional development program. Use the following scale:
4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely
Our professional development…
___ Is designed to help us achieve our mission.
___ Supports implementation of our strategic plan.
___ Addresses current/future job responsibilities.
___ Helps individual staff members achieve their annual growth goals.
___ Is ongoing.
___ Is research-based.
___ Is differentiated.
___ Is based on an assessment of our current reality.
___ Is designed using a process involving planning, implementation, and evaluation.
___ Takes place in a variety of ways, in addition to workshops.
___ Involves using new knowledge and skills during the training.
___ Involves reflection.
___ Involves teams.
___ Involves follow-up.
___ Results in us applying knowledge and skills (not in having knowledge and skills).
___ Helps us achieve our mission.
Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:
- How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
- What excites/concerns me about the data?
- How clear is our organization on what makes a good professional development program good?
- To enhance our professional development program, which 2-3 line items could I address?
- What will I do?
*This blog entry is part of a 6-part series:
- What do you want to focus your organization’s professional development on?
- What are the components of a professional development plan?
- What do you believe about professional development?
- How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?
- How can you increase the impact of professional development?
- What are your organization's professional development needs?
