1. Mark Lynch Lighthouse Resources
PROFESSIONAL ENHANCEMENT PLANNING – AN ANTIDOTE TO TRADITIONAL YEARLY PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEMS

2. Professional Enhancement Planning
Presented by
Mark Lynch
Lighthouse Resources
Website:
© Lighthouse Resources 2005

3. Learning organizations
While all people have the capacity to learn, the structures in which they have to function are often not conducive to reflection and engagement. Furthermore, people may lack the tools and guiding ideas to make sense of the situations they face. Organizations that are continually expanding their capacity to create their future require a fundamental shift of mind among their members.
Peter Senge  

4. “…an irrelevant annual ritual, which is often uncomfortable for those on the receiving end and for those charged with its execution. … The outputs only become relevant to the individual where they relate to pay and promotion.”
(Reference: Jones, P., Palmer, J., Osterweil, C. and Whitehead, D. 1996
Delivering Exceptional Performance: Aligning the Potential of Organisations,
Teams and Individuals, Pitman, London.)

6. strengths-based approaches to supporting staff

7. Think about plants … in some conditions plants will flourish and bloom and in others they will wither and die. We want to support people to flourish and bloom.

8. PEP is about partnership, growth and supporting people
PEP is a model of supporting people to develop their skills, interests and passions, to obtain feedback about areas on which they would like to focus and to develop a plan for working towards their own goals, whilst ensuring that these goals are congruent with organisational goals.

9. Reviewing Progress of the Plan
Initial PEP Meeting
Collaboration
Identify key learning areas/areas for feedback
Identify people to approach
Timeframes
Preparing for PEP
Themes from supervision and position description
Reviewing Progress of the Plan
Discuss progress
Initiate process for new plan
OVERVIEW OF PROFESSIONAL ENHANCEMENT PLANNING PROCESS
Obtaining Reflections/Feedback from Other People
Relevance
Strengths-based
Concrete/specific
Putting the Plan Together
Discussing themes from reflections
Strengths and resources
Who’s responsible
Timeframes

10. Key Steps and Tasks of PEP Process
1. Preparing
for PEP
To discuss themes which have come up in the person’s work
- Supervision
- Position description

11. Key Steps and Tasks of PEP Process
2. Initial PEP meeting (manager and staff person)
To identify key learning areas
To identify people to approach for reflections/feedback
To identify the process for obtaining reflections/ feedback
To allocate tasks

12. Example Letters

13. Dear Nathan
I am writing to invite you to be a part of my Professional Enhancement Planning.
I have been developing a number of areas of my work. These include:
Developing my supervision skills…. What is it that I do that makes you feel supported? Are there other things that I could be doing that would enhance this support?
Continuing to focus on people’s strengths… In what ways do I work with families/Family Support Workers/other staff that focus on their strengths and capacities? What other ways could I be doing this?
Developing my training and presentation skills – (for example, through my involvement in working parties and other projects). Do you have any concrete suggestions or feedback about how I could enhance this?
I would like to hear your feedback about these and any other areas and particularly your ideas on ways that I may continue my development. You are under absolutely no obligation to participate in this process. I understand that some people may prefer not to or are unable to do so at the moment. If however you are happy to be involved, there are a number of ways that this feedback could happen, depending on your own preference. These include talking directly to me, talking to David or by writing your comments and forwarding them to either David or myself.
David will be in touch with you in the coming weeks to discuss your preferences.
Yours sincerely
Dianne Hughes

14. Strengths-Based Feedback
What?
From a strengths-based perspective, feedback may be viewed as the invited, respectful provision of information to another person about your perception of their actions.
Why?
Strengths-based feedback is a resource additional to the person’s own perceptions, strengths and resources which may be used by the person as they establish and work towards goals.

15. Professional Enhancement Plan
Name: Dianne
Key Learning Areas
Picture of the Future
What’s Been Tried?
Resources
What to Try
Time-Lines
Supervision skills
Continuing to develop skills in strengths-based supervision
Supervising a number of people in a range of roles;
Being available for both formal and informal supervision; Flexibility in way supervision is carried out
Other managers;
Readings;
Training in strengths-based supervision
Reflecting team approach (using management team); Providing clear feedback with regard to expectations; Obtaining feedback from individuals after supervision sessions (eg. What worked? Was that useful?); Continue to explore strengths-based supervision
Check progress in 2-3 months