The long but not lonely journey for deliberate development.
Its Year 2025.
I stumbled upon a saved cloud document today, its the Immunity Change Map — by no means a singular attempt to ‘grow’, this one was to identify my ‘unconscious backhand’ standing between me and my ‘best self’.
I remember giving the exercise a go. It asked me for where there would be most significant Room for Growth, it asked how I could work on it, it asked how I might self-sabotage, it asked for the worries that fuel the sabotage, and what the beliefs I could commit to, to keep fear and worry at bay. Then it puts a finishing spell — to break into the Room for Growth, it asks, ‘What is your biggest assumption?’, or in my mind, what is the illicit ‘truth’ that I hold on to that makes closing this improvement gap so challenging?
I had worked on that map multiple times that week, studied it, shared my concerns with my assigned partner/ally across Zoom. I crafted each section, stripped it free of withholding, shined it with candor — I was super earnest, hopeful.
Now its but a foggy memory. What did I write?
I double clicked to open. It’s empty. Or it be accurate, the headers are there, but the boxes are empty. It is an empty document, except this line.
“If it is important enough, you would have taken care of it.”
Return to 2020.
My Immunity to Change map is fresh in my consciousness. After perfecting it, I am now desperate for some surety that my map will work, my immunity will break, I want a panacea for change, I want to slay my dragon and claim my treasure… but I suspect that this isn’t that game.
Obviously, an individual’s psychology and behaviour needs to change after discerning one’s blind spots. And that type of change, is not easily within one’s control, for those who have tried, it is a frustrating, tedious, circuitous route that brings one round the block — again, again and again. Progress is certain, if one keeps at it. If it is important work, I will find a way to keep at it, that is my only surety, and my experience of changing up.
So I don’t think I can turbo-charge my Room for Growth now-now. But the map is a useful exercise in focusing on one’s ‘personal growth edge’ and showing how we could cut the cloth to work on it. I just don’t think that it will be my takeaway for this exercise- i.e. how I will improve.
What the Immunity to Change map shows me.
It is an example of a thinking to agitate for deliberate development — to become a more self-designed, intentional change agent, to put stuff that matters deeply to me, into a logic framework, with actionable steps that I can easily advance or be mindful of, in any workplace.
It is an example of a communication tool for a deliberately development organisation. Even in a non- DDO, straight-laced workplace, with the right boss, this could something I would confidently share. It is akin to a love letter to myself , but put out in open — an opportunity to show vulnerability at work, and if shared by someone else, an opportunity to listen deeply, and contribute to the other’s growth.
Deliberate Development is about keeping good company.
We started this week with wild guesses of what ‘deliberate development’ and a ‘deliberately developmental organisation’ would look like.
I now recognise shades of it in my traditional workplace, and I imagine any workplace with some resources, with intention to nurture and develop their people, will have elements of a DDO.
But there are some differences that would matter between such an organisation, and what I think is a good DDO, in effect the latter holds you in good company for your deliberate development. In my mind, these are some of the more essential patterns to a DDO’s configuration- without which, a DDO simply would not manifest.
3 patterns of a DDO structure
- Definitive of ‘community’ for the individual. Our Room for Growth isn’t locked away and inconsequential like it would be in a traditional organisation. It is shared knowledge, a sharing of differences and vulnerabilities, and we would be stronger for the support we receive on it, regardless of the progress we make on it.
- Our individual personal growth potential would not be an uneven playing field — where only a selected few get opportunities to work on, level up on any area for development. Self development literally means health and vitality points, and no matter the role or position, everyone gets fair share.
- In a DDO, the organisation is not building a better singular organisational entity by unlocking and mining our individual hidden potential, it is the other way around. We are leaning into the organisation to build up our individual feedback systems, using the collective and creative energy of individuals who are keeping at what’s important, keeping at changing up — to mutual ends.
