Personal Development Planning – Step 4 Take Action and Measure Progress

Introduction

One of the more important things you can do for yourself is to create a plan, take action and measure progress for your personal development.  For me the personal development plan is an ongoing activity.  Every 60 to 90 days I review the plan and adjust the plan as needed.

Background

Over the years I have tried to set both personal and career goals for myself.  As I have written before I like to learn and grow.  I use the format of a development plan as a way to help me stay focused.  It has also been a way for me to measure my growth from month to month or year to year.

Today’s blog entry will focus on what is a personal development plan and how to put one in place.  I will be writing a series of blog entries on this topic as I will write a blog entry for each of the four steps.  The four steps are the following:

Take Action and Measure Progress

Taking Action via Deming Quality Model

I work in the field of software engineering and one of the great authors in the field is William Edward Deming.  He was known as one of the pioneers in the field of software quality.  He created a model that can be used to measure the progress you have against a goal.  (I have previously written that this model can be used to help you overcome your “Fear Cycle”.

The model consists of four steps.

  • The first step is to Plan what you want to do.   You will want to identify what needs to be done to accomplish a This is the task of writing down the steps or activities that are needed to complete a t
  • The second step is to Do the what you have planned.   I have found that by making a list of the activities that are
  •  The third step is to Check what you have done.  This consists of the steps to review the results of your work.  You will want to give an honest assessment of your work.
  •  The fourth step is the critical step and that is to Act on what was found in the check phase.  The Act step is used to correct or adjust your activity so that you can improve the quality of your product.

Conclusion

I hope this entry helps you to understand the value in being able to “Take Action and Measure Progress”.  This is the last of four (4) blog entries on the topic of Personal Development Planning.  I hope that these blog entries were of value to you and good luck with completing your Personal Development Plan. 

Tim Meyer
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