Do you know or know of anyone who is “fully developed”? I don’t.
Bob Morris, in a comment he left on this blog post: A Training Session is Just the Beginning

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Bob Morris is witty.  And knows how to get to the point quickly.  In my blog post, I had written this line:

The problem is simple.  Too many employees are not fully developed.

And Bob left his comment:

The problem is simple.  Too many employees are not fully developed.

I thought about a snarky response:  Yes, I know of one fully developed person.  Jerry Jones is certainly fully developed as a General Manager in the NFL.

Then I thought about a serious response.  Is there anyone that I know of that we could say ever fully developed?  I thought of Michael Jordan’s dominance, and that last shot he perfected as his physical skills began to fade (if only a little.  I wrote about this in this blog post:  But We Can’t All Be Michael Jordan – The Challenge: Building Success with Average Folks.

I thought of Meryl Streep, surely as close to “fully developed” as any person in any field in history.  (Or, Daniel Day Lewis).  To read about their preparation, to read about their immersion in their roles….  Well, that sounds pretty fully developed to me.

But, of course, Bob’s point is clear, and one I agree with, and have tried to write about often.

We are, none of us, fully developed, and we know it.  In fact, I would propose that the very existence of this blog is testimony to the fact that people in all aspects of their work lives, (and their personal lives), know that there is always another new thing to learn, another new skill to work on, or another long-neglected improvement that maybe it really is time to tackle.

We live in a world where the best keep trying to make the best better, and that means constant development of every resource that an organization has – including the most importannt resource, the person at work.  And it is each person’s responsibility to work on constant improvement – constant “development” of his or her skills, capabilities, abilities.  Aiming at getting better, perpetually.  Tweaking, improving, discovering…

Peter Senge wrote:  “People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, and their growth areas.”  And within that short sentence we find a lifelong agenda.  Be aware of your own ignorance; be aware of your own incompetence; be aware of your own growth areas.  And, after progress is made, even great progress, there will always be more to tackle in these three challenging areas.

So I have a little challenge for you (and for me).  Think hard about this one.  You have discovered in yourself, or someone has pointed out to you, one of your deficiencies – one of your “growth areas.”  If your reaction is, “I don’t want to change that,” or, “I probably never will change that about myself,” then you have just identified the right starting point.

So, get to work.