We’re not meant to run full speed all the time. That’s true for our daily lives where we need breaks and rest. It’s also true for effective talent development.
Frederick the Great (1712 – 1786) asked: “What good is experience if you do not reflect?”
The pace was slower in his day. Time for reflection came naturally. Today, it’s different.
Today we have to carve out time for rest and reflection. We have to make time to connect the lessons of experience to our actions and performance. That’s not easy in a culture that values hard driving and constant improvement and where answering email at all hours is considered a badge of virtue.
The most effective long term human growth and performance occurs when a person follows a period of intense activity with a period for recovery. That’s a good idea for talent development, too.
Build reflection and recovery time into the assignment schedule. Most people in business develop in two ways.
We develop by wrestling with the day-to-day challenges of our current assignments. Over time, little bits of learning and development combine for big gains.
Crises and developmental assignments intensify learning and development for shorter periods. These almost always add workload to what we’re already doing.
We can make all of this more effective by adding after-action critiques for crises and developmental assignments to identify key learning and development points. And we can help the learning take hold by allowing time between developmental assignments.
