While our team co-ordinator is enjoying Family Leave we have been joined temporarily by Hugh, who found himself thrown into the largely unknown world of Organisational and People Development, and this gave him pause for thought.

As the newest member of the Organisational and People Development team, this is a question I have been mulling over in my mind for the past couple of weeks. I recognised the importance of exploring this topic when I found myself in a marketing meeting on just my second day in the office. How can you market a service if you do not understand its nuances and implications?

Spare moments in my day were often spent turning these thoughts over. How far does a definition of development stretch? What outcomes constitute development? How are these measured, and is there a minimum to which you could classify an action as a form of development? It was when I was out into the Kent countryside (Blean Forest is a lovely setting for a Sunday walk/cycle) that I had a change of perspective. Here, in this more serene environment, I realised that I had been approaching the questions all wrong. Away from the noise and activity of Canterbury, I had space to consider my own thoughts rather than being focused on the stimulus around me.

Development is, quite simply, personal. What it means, how it is acquired and how its impacts are felt and measured, are often determined and satisfied on your own terms.

For me, at the ripe old age of twenty-three, I am at a stage in my life where myself and most of my peers around me seem to be all-consumed by the ever-present question: ‘so, what are you doing at the moment?’. In essence, this is being asked what career you are pursuing, what life choices you are making, and where you see yourself in ten years’ time – all rolled into one. This question seems even more pertinent to someone who has been putting off making such decisions by disappearing to the other corner of the world (I would really recommend a Fergburger in Queenstown – those things are something else).

I am at a crossroads. A moment in time where I am surrounded by a wealth of opportunities and potential horizons; yet stuck in a reality of living with my girlfriend in her parents’ home desperately trying to find what suits me. It is here, where I have stumbled across my own understandings of development. To me, its importance does not simply lie in how you develop your skills set and apply that to the jobs and tasks you do day by day. Development is the tool which helps you solve more deep-seated questions and long-term struggles.

Development is an agent in self-awareness and self-understanding. It manifests your capabilities and illustrates which of your competencies you are most adept at utilising. It highlights what skills you learn the quickest, and provides you with insight at to what outcomes and results you find fulfilment in generating.

Development is as much about applied learning as it is about my self-learning and self-study. With it, I have the power and confidence to recognise opportunities when they present themselves, and to maximise what reward I can reap from them.

Finding avenues for development and recognising its affects is certainly one of the highlights of what I have so far experienced in my new role, and is a tool for growth that I intend to pursue in future.

Hugh Lawrence, People Development Co-ordinator

people.development@canterbury.ac.uk