Development Plans
The deeper conversation Goal Setting doesn't have room for — a real plan for closing one specific, meaningful gap, not a generic training module.
When This Conversation Starts
Goal Setting covers most of a direct report's growth in a single Professional Development goal each cycle. Development Plans is for when that goal needs more than a line — a specific, meaningful capability gap, usually surfaced one of two ways. (If the gap is a shortfall against expectations already given, not a growth opportunity, see Performance Improvement Plan instead — a different, consequence-bearing conversation.)
From Goal Setting
The same Professional Development goal keeps showing up quarter after quarter without actually closing. That's the signal it needs its own plan, not just another line item.
From Succession Planning
Someone's rated "needs development" before they're ready for a target role on the 9-box grid. The gap already has a name; now it needs a plan.
The 70-20-10 Model
Most real development happens on the job, not in a classroom — a widely used split for making sure a plan doesn't default to "send them to a training" as its only move.
Writing the Plan
Name the gap — specific enough that two people would agree whether it's closed. "Better at stakeholder management" isn't it; "can run a cross-functional steering committee meeting solo" is.
Pick the 70 — the one real stretch assignment that would force the gap to close, not ten small ones.
Pick the 20 — the one person whose coaching or mentoring actually moves this.
Set a check-in cadence — the same Quarterly Review rhythm as everything else in this cycle. A development plan nobody revisits is a wish, not a plan.
A plan built entirely out of the 10% — courses and certifications — feels productive and rarely closes anything. The 70% is the part that's actually uncomfortable to assign, which is exactly why it's the part most often skipped.
Try It
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