Wasted talents vs. Citizen Development

I was recently having dinner with my sister and we’re talking about different memories from our parents. We began talking about my father, we both recalled him talking about a parable in the Bible about wasted talents.  We both recall this being a recurring story told throughout our childhood.  When we were younger, we understood this to be about the importance of using the skills we were lucky to have. But as we discussed more, we realized he was also looking forward to times when we could help others in using their talents.

Over the last few years I’ve been working in an area called citizen development (what is Citizen Development). Usually when I talk to people about its benefits, I talk about things that matter to the company like: cost savings,  efficiencies,  accuracy or other standard drivers. Citizen development delivers all of those beautifully.

But there’s always been something else that has appealed to me, but I was unable to pinpoint.  That was until we began reminiscing about our dad and this parable. 

There are so many people who for many different reasons have not had the opportunity to use their talents to their full ability, and that is a great crime. People should not end up without carer options because of decisions made at some younger point in their life. Yet, that’s exactly what happens all too often.

Look around your office, how many people have been doing same jobs for years or even decades. How many of them are stuck doing something that allows for limited creativity, narrow organizational impact, and poor growth opportunities.   How many of them are capable of more?  

Citizen Development is one way to help change that.   Citizen development not only helps a company, but it helps that company employee the chance to learn skills that can launch them in an entirely new career.  A career that allows them to use their creativity, create broad organization impact and has a great career path.  

In other words, a career where their talents are being used. 

Three years into my work with Citizen Development, I finally understood that intangible that has always appealed to me, and at the same time came to more deeply understand a lesson my dad was eager to teach. 

As leaders of businesses, we have the opportunity to help our employees better use their talents.  How wonderful when in doing so, we can also drive innovation, cost savings, data accuracy, and many other benefits.  

To learn more about Citizen Development, or how to being a Citizen Development program at your company contact DT Group via email at John@DTGroup.io, or book some time to discuss at https://calendly.com/johnmct