Prioritizing growth as a learning leader or talent development professional can be challenging when the focus is often on supporting others rather than ourselves. However, to truly model the behavior expected of others, learning professionals must be intentional about individual and team growth and development.

“Getting our own house in order” refers to the intentional process of aligning individual and team development efforts to enhance overall effectiveness and engagement within the learning function of an organization. Despite the benefits, barriers often stand in the way of prioritizing growth.

What gets in the way?

Investing time in growth for individuals and teams is not easy. You entered the learning and development (L&D) field because you wanted to help others. While prioritizing others is noble, it’s hard to be an effective learning professional if you don’t set aside time to grow your skills.

Common obstacles — time constraints, prioritizing others and lack of resources — can often hinder team development efforts. What’s getting in the way for your training team? To effectively address these challenges, it’s essential to adopt specific mitigation strategies.

Strategies for Overcoming Team Development Barriers

Create more time by identifying tasks to stop, pause, minimize or automate. Block off weekly time for thinking, planning and learning, and limit distractions by turning off email and messaging.

Shift your focus to include your own growth by identifying your top priorities, goals and values. Use these to focus on what matters most instead of what seems most urgent. Develop healthy boundaries for you and your team, and learn the art of saying “no” strategically.

Tackle a lack of resources by getting creative with learning and growing. Although your resources may be limited, there are numerous free or low-cost ways to develop. For example, you and your team can volunteer or speak at conferences to get free or discounted tickets, borrow books or use LinkedIn Learning from the library, sign up for free trade magazines, or listen to podcasts.

With common barriers addressed, the next step is building a strong foundation that supports continuous growth.

Setting the foundation:

One of the best ways to get your house in order is by setting a strong foundation for your team with a vision, mission and norms. Crafting a clear vision and mission aligns your team’s efforts and focuses everyone’s attention. Team norms help facilitate effective collaboration, set expectations for how the team engages with each other and support mutual learning.

Set aside time on your calendar to work on this. Start by reviewing the organization’s mission, vision and strategic priorities. Use data collected from needs assessments, engagement surveys and learning programming to help inform the discussion. Look for themes to help you and your team craft your vision and mission statement.

Ask the team to reflect on these themes along with their vision of the future of learning at the organization:

• What does success look like?
• How does our work support the business goals of the organization?
• How do we envision ourselves one year from now? What about five years from now?

Building learning time in your calendar:

A strong foundation in vision, mission and team norms sets the stage for ongoing development and team cohesion. Incorporating intentional learning into your team’s schedule is essential for sustaining growth and fostering collaboration.

Consider these four practical approaches for setting aside learning time:

1. Schedule quarterly conversations with each team member focused on their professional and career development goals. During these conversations check in on their progress and offer support as needed.
2. Encourage dedicated calendar time for peer-to-peer learning and collaboration through study groups or partnerships.
3. Plan half-day or full-day strategic sessions with your team at least twice a year, if not quarterly. These opportunities should focus on learning, connection and strategy.
4. Dedicate time in each team meeting for check-ins. Use this time to gauge team well-being, discuss support needs, and share recent learnings.Building these approaches into the flow of work will help your team grow individually and collectively. You can even use this dedicated learning time to test out new skills or learning programs that you want to launch for the organization.

For example, if you plan to implement a communication skills workshop series, practice with each other first. Or if you want to introduce an assessment tool to another team, try it out within your team first.

Experimenting internally allows you to role-model the behaviors you expect to see in others and provides a chance to work through any challenges before the larger launch.

Putting It All Together

It’s never too late to focus on the growth of your internal L&D team, and there’s no better day than today to map out a plan for building a solid foundation for your learning efforts.

Take the first step today: Schedule an hour on your calendar to begin shaping your team’s vision and mission, establishing team norms, and coordinating intentional development and connection for individuals and the team throughout the year.

Prioritizing getting our house in order within the training team strengthens skills and demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement across the organization. This work will have a ripple effect on the results and outcomes, inspiring others, creating a stronger team culture, and enjoying a lasting impact across the organization.