Putting the participant at the heart of their development.
A 360-degree review covering all aspects of performance and development
Real life scenarios and situations bringing the day to life
Individual coaching and action plan
What is a Development Centre?
A Development Centre allows the client to spend a day focusing on their team members, their strengths and areas for development and helps the individual to create a development plan. In a nutshell, it’s about setting an improvement programme incorporating colleagues, leaders and the business. This may be prior to a change within the business, or it could be an opportunity to simply take stock of where everyone is, and plan for future growth.
AHC Learning Ltd has delivered Development Centres in the past for both public-sector and private-sector clients who wanted to develop their team members. For the public-sector client, this was focused on minority employees and the client wanted to help progress them into management roles, and our Development Centre helped them to do this.
The private-sector client we worked with was going through a substantial change in their business and wanted to ensure that they had the right people in place currently, as well as receive help for the recruitment of future colleagues.
Alison says:
A Development Centre is ideal for a client to utilise to identify colleague’s strengths, areas for growth and establish a clear plan on how to move forward with this.
Learning is…
- 70% of learning is experimental
- 20% of learning is relationship based
- 10% of learning is formally ‘taught’
Challenges
The main challenge when running a Development Centre is that participants can often feel suspicious of it, so it is vital to put them at ease while they contribute. Some businesses may view a Development Centre as a “nice to do” task and the challenge for AHC Learning is to convince business clients of the value of running a Development Centre, and the benefits it can bring to the organisation.
Alison says:
The one-day Development Centre is an opportunity for an organisation to assess the skill set of an individual with a view to focussing on their development needs, alongside their strengths. This should be focussed on the individual reflecting their current or future role depending on the situation.
What We Did
AHC Learning has run several Development Centres, and this programme is pooled together from different aspects of these to form a “best practice” scenario, based on our experience.
The Development Centre is bespoke for the client, using a selection of appropriate activities such as Competency Interviews, Presentations, Case Studies, Inbox Activities, 360 Feedback and Roleplay. These activities are adapted for the client/role we are focusing on to ensure we bring in real examples from the workplace. Hence we are able to observe how the participants react to that situation and allow for self-reflection whilst sharing feedback with the participant.
The coaches can then either support the participants to create a development plan which they share with their leaders, or the coach can continue with monthly 1-2-1 sessions. These are an opportunity for the client to check in with participants, hold them accountable for their development and offer ongoing coaching.
Alison says:
Making the Development Centre business and person- focused allows us to truly gain an insight into the participants’ strengths and areas for development.
Development Centre Summary
• competency interview
• role-play exercise
• self-assessment and 360-degree feedback • presentation
• 1-2-1 coaching session
• personal action plan
Results/ Feedback
The Development Centre starts with an informal welcome to the event. It’s key to put everyone at ease to give them the best opportunity to be successful.
The first section is an interview which covers competency and scenario-based questions, allowing us to assess the participants’ skill set and how they have handled or would handle a situation. The competencies are agreed with the client in advance, and the questions are designed to prompt responses from the participant on these competencies.
Next is a group roleplay exercise. The roles are agreed with the client dependant on their business and the roles within the business/participant group. During this section, we can assess the interpersonal skills, business acumen, negotiation skills etc to identify strengths and development areas.
The third section allows some self-assessment and 360-degree feedback. This can be done via MBTI/Communication skills inventory or another assessment of the client’s preference. Each participant completes a self-assessment in advance and has the chance to review this alongside the 360- degree feedback reports to identify their own strengths and development which can be discussed later.
The fourth section of the day gives the participant the opportunity to design and deliver a presentation on a topic that is pertinent to the client. This section allows us to assess presentation skills, data analysis and business acumen.
The fifth section is a 1-2-1 coaching session with the coach who has observed & interacted with the participant throughout the day. The coach will share their feedback and deliver a coaching session. The content of the session may be driven by the individual or the client as discussed at the outset.
The sixth session is a personal action plan where the participant takes their learnings and observations from the Development Centre, reviewing their self-assessment and 360-degree feedback to identify their next steps to be discussed with their manager.
“The coach made me feel relaxed, so I could perform well.”
“I found the day useful to take time out to see where I need to develop.”
“It was good it wasn’t just focused on the area I don’t do well at. It was good to see my strengths.”
“Alison challenged my thinking in a positive manner.”
(This feedback is taken from previous AHC Learning development and assessment centres)
Alison says:
It’s about putting the person right at the heart of their development. I think sometimes a Development Centre can be more of a tick-box exercise with no opportunity for reflection or feedback and purely focused on the business. I offer the mini-coaching session at the end to ensure the participants gain value from the centres too.
“Our workshops aren’t about pointing out where people are doing things wrong; it’s about recognising where they are already doing it right, leveraging those strengths, sharing them internally and using them to enhance business relationships.”
– Alison, AHC Learning Ltd.
Could your organisation benefit from our Development Centre?
Since 2001, AHC Learning Ltd. have excelled in delivering personal and professional learning and development workshops. We aim to make a real difference while forming true and lasting partnerships with our clients, enabling us to deliver the right solution at the right time.
Contact me today for a chat about how I can help your business achieve its goals.