Is “Training” What People Want? 

It was the summer of 2022, and whether it was a generational shift or the repercussions of working remotely during COVID-19, we knew we needed to think differently about connecting and charting pathways for growth. Like many organizations, we were grappling with the Great Resignation, succession planning, and a big shift in how people were thinking about the arc of their careers. Our conversation as a leadership team was: what if we created a position that focused more on our people’s experiences and opportunities for growth? We are one year into establishing this new position, the Director of Employee Experience and Growth, and we’re glad we did.

I’ve had dozens of conversations with people over the years about their career paths and professional development. One thing I’ve noticed is an overreliance on training with a capital T. Articulating that need for “Training” is often the easiest thing to identify when you start to feel directionless or want to take yourself to the next level. But what if we help people focus on experiences that foster growth and learning on the job; what if we focus on relationships and systems of support; what if we give people permission to focus and help them recognize when a pathway for growth is in front of them? What if we help them identify that pathway outside of the rubric of “Training” and within a framework of relationships, support, and shared learning?

We’re at the very beginning stages of this shift in the “Training” mindset but have learned several things along the way. What we’ve observed is that as humans, we want a rubric, even if that isn’t always what serves us; we don’t always see our colleagues as a critical part of our growth, which can lead to feeling isolated, and we have a tendency to view our daily work as something separate from our focus on our growth and development when in fact they are one and the same.

With these lessons in mind, here are three ways to support your people’s personal and professional growth, focusing on creating individual five-year plans, cohort-based learning, and rich experiences on the project work that serves our clients and communities.

1. Five-Year Plans: Create a five-year plan template to help early- and mid-career staff reflect, focus, and identify supports in their lives professionally and personally. Ask your people: Who are your systems of support? What are the types of projects or skills that you want to lean into? What types of tasks drain you, and what do you notice fills you with energy?
   Invite your people to focus, write it down, and give them permission not to be good at everything. Five-year plans are not a check-the-box exercise; they are a living, breathing roadmap, a point of reference for people to return to and adjust with guidance from their mentors, leaders, and colleagues. They also help the organization know what people are hoping to gain and accomplish.
2. Cohort-Based Learning: Create space for people in similar positions to foster connections and learn from shared experiences. Cohort-based sessions can focus on different topics or levels to guide conversation, with training materials woven in. Cohorts could range from a group of new hires onboarding together to a series of facilitated conversations when people are promoted to the next level to a full-blown leadership program to bring up the next generation of leaders in the firm. Invite people into the mindset of shared learning, reflection, and seeing each other as immense resources. Remind them that they can form and sustain their own cohorts, too.
3. Learn by Doing: Learning and growth does not happen outside of our everyday routine; it’s integrated into everything we do. Yet, we often forget to see our busy days in this light. Ask your people: Which tasks are you interested in supporting? What area of expertise do you bring to the project? What are you hoping to do more of or less of in your work? Remind your project managers and leaders that the work we do to serve our clients and communities is the rich learning people seek. Their responsibility is to foster growth on the job by making each moment count.

Of course, there is a place for training. But training is for the tactical how-tos, the systems and processes that help the business run smoothly. Having champions in every corner of the business—operations, human resources, business development, team leaders, and project managers—is critical to the success of building strong support systems.

As the Director of Employee Experience and Growth, I’m excited about creating a culture of learning and growth so that when our people navigate challenges or changes in their personal lives or feel that pang for new experiences or responsibilities, they have a strong web of support around them and know they’re in the right place. ◆