Creating a culture of excellence requires investing in growing all employees’ skills. This should especially be the case for learning and development team members whose primary task is growing and developing others in the organization. But so often our own team members are left behind for development opportunities as our focus naturally pitches outward toward developing the broader organization. It’s the age-old story of the cobbler’s kids not having shoes to wear. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune or take a lot of time to focus on developing your L&D team members.

The well-known 70-20-10 approach to development is a solid foundation — where 70 percent of development occurs through on-the-job stretch opportunities, 20 percent through mentoring and 10 percent through outside activities. Many leaders believe development requires going somewhere, taking training courses or paying for outside learning experiences to develop and grow — essentially the reverse of the 70-20-10 model. However, focusing on the 70 percent portion that is on-the-job development can yield much stronger results and for the entire team.

Choice University views developing our L&D team members as a business imperative. We know that learning professionals are professional learners, so we have built professional development into our everyday processes. We do this so development isn’t an add-on to their already rigorous project schedule, or even an after-thought. The three things we put into practice to bring this philosophy to life are: assign projects with a focus on development, establish collaboration methods and reinforce freedom to partner across the team.

It starts at the top with the ChoiceU leadership team. When a new learning need is brought to the team to work on, we decide as a leadership team which of our team members will take the lead. Before anything else, we consider when the deliverable is needed and the bandwidth available. But we quickly shift to discussing who is passionate about the topic, who has expertise in the development medium to be used and who has expressed an interest in either of those areas.

Previously, we tended to select the same handful of team members, often those who frequently asked to lead projects. This approach restricted others on the team to work on the same types of project tasks again and again, which denied them the opportunity to take on new and different projects. Because the handful of go-to team members were consistently being selected for the same types of projects, they also weren’t developing new skills either. The unfortunate result of this approach is that, in the end, no one gets to discover new areas of interest or develop new skills and expertise. It may feel comfortable to assign projects to those who have worked on something similar in the past, but eventually they will become bored, which is demotivating for a creative L&D mind.

Now, we are more inclined to select a team member who is passionate about a topic and wants to grow their skills, rather than one who has successfully done similar work in the past. We identify any upskilling the person might need and identify other team members who can come alongside the project as consultants or mentors. Before officially assigning the work, we allow the person to decide whether to accept the opportunity, knowing that it will be a stretch and that they will need to rely on others. We emphasize the unique competencies and passion they bring to the project, while acknowledging the skills they will need to develop. It is important that they understand they must not work in a vacuum, but that they are expected to bring in others from across the team with any expertise they lack.

Our intent is to provide the stretch opportunity, a way to upskill and the confidence to take on the challenge.

Another key ingredient to on-the-job development is establishing a collaboration methodology. We have found that our best learning work product is produced when we draw from across the L&D functions to leverage diversity of thought and skill. This will not come naturally at first because people can be skeptical they might lose something — usually credit or recognition — when sharing work with others. Leadership must model this approach so team members see that recognition is not finite; there can be plenty of credit for each person who collaborates productively on a project.

To kick-start the approach, we hand-picked a few projects and worked with project leads to assemble a group of team members who brought different skills, expertise and perspectives to each assignment. The goal is to identify people across the team they are comfortable working with, and who could bring different ideas to the table and would have the confidence to do so. We ask ourselves, “who are the experts for this type of assignment?” and, “who on the team wants to learn about this?” when considering who to include. The “learners” in a collaborative setting bring unique perspectives and ideas that the “experts” frequently overlook, because they think more like our end-user. In our experience, including these learners always leads to a better work product.

Striking the right balance between those with expertise and those who are in learner mode is critical to maintaining momentum in a collaborative project, though. We want to foster creativity and diversity of thought for the benefit of the project, and to provide rich learning opportunities for our team. We do not want so many learners that it slows down progress, nor so many experts that the team becomes stuck in analysis paralysis with so many ideas on how to move forward. Assembling a productive collaborative team is an art, not a science. There isn’t a singular ratio of experts to learners that works for every assignment. And for smaller or shorter-term assignments which require only one or two people, building a collaborative group may not be efficient.

The last, but arguably most important, step to establishing on-the-job development is the autonomy of team members to freely partner with others across the team at any time. Each of our team members has expertise in some areas, and areas they want to develop. Everyone knows they have the freedom to reach out to anyone on the team to bounce ideas off of, to consult on delivery, to brainstorm content, to be a second set of eyes, or for any other reason. They also have the freedom to accept or decline participation, since they manage their own work schedule and know how much bandwidth they have. This works because our team members know and respect each others’ talents.

At first, we had to eliminate the stigma that asking for help implies weakness as a team member. We needed to establish that reaching out to others is seen as a strength, not a weakness — a self-awareness that everyone has areas of expertise as well as areas to develop. We reinforce this by publicly celebrating when people bring in others to help with assignments. Often, our team members will share stories not just of learners developing from experts, but experts and learners equally developing from pairing each other’s unique skills and perspectives together. We continuously learn new things about our team and the varied experiences and skills they bring.

Putting these few simple things into practice will help build a culture of self-perpetuating continuous development within any team. What gives me the most pride is when collaboration happens organically, without prompting from leadership. It has become an expectation that no one person is expert at everything, but that we must leverage the expertise resident within the team and continue to learn from each other. By intentionally integrating development into our normal processes, we are fostering a culture not only of excellence today, but one of continuous improvement, growth, and opportunity. This is how the cobbler’s kids are also allowed to have shoes.

Jeneane Becker is dean of Choice University, a multiple award-winning learning organization. ChoiceU placed in the top ten of Chief Learning Officer’s 2021 Learning Elite awards, and earned a 2021 Editor’s Choice designation for best small company. To comment, email editor@clomedia.com.