Grow: Strengthen Capacity Through Learning and FeedbackPart

GROW: Part 4A of the ALIGN Series
Absorb | Legitimize | Integrate | Grow | Nurture

In this series of posts, I am introducing each stage of the ALIGN Framework, a method designed to align leadership and engage staff. My premise is simple: when leadership is aligned, brilliant ideas take flight, and when staff is engaged early to shape the details, those ideas are far more likely to be adopted. Staff feel valued, heard, and involved. It is a win win for the organization.

Congratulations!  You have launched your project, initiative or task. Now the hard work begins!  Once priorities have been translated into action, the next step is to strengthen the people and systems that carry the work forward. Grow, the  fourth phase in the ALIGN framework is Grow, is where leaders, teams and individual contributors build capacity, confidence, and resilience.

From Implementation to Strengthen

Once a new approach (or project or initiative)  is implemented, real learning begins.  Even with strong foresight, risk assessments, and mitigation measures,  it is impossible to predict exactly how something new will impact individuals or the system.  Having a growth mindset is key to successfully navigating those impacts.

Growth happens when learning is continuous, not episodic. Organizations that treat learning as continuous, not episodic find they are more easily  more responsive to shifts in the system.  They notice signals such as employee experience, customer feedback, performance data, and everyday observations, to adjust and strengthen the ecosystem.

When teams reflect together on what they are learning, they begin to see themselves as co-owners of improvement, not just executors of a plan.

Growth Is a Leadership Practice

Leaders play a critical role in shaping the learning culture. By modeling curiosity, asking reflective questions, and signaling that adaptation is part of the work, they will create the conditions where learning is expected, supported, and safe.

It is also important to recognize that growth takes time, and that people need room to build confidence as they develop new capabilities. When leaders normalize learning, teams are better able to experiment, share insight, and adjust the course.

Strengths Based Growth

When an organization decides to do something differently, or entirely new, the success of that decision depends on people’s ability to adapt, learn, and lead. That means investing in development intentionally across all levels of the organization.  Depending on the situation,  the leader may need support as much as the front line staff.

As a Gallup Strengths coach, there is the expression, “everyone needs a coach”. People at any job level benefit from coaching on how to maximize their strengths and calibrate their performance to be most effective. No one, and I mean no one, likes to feel incompetent in their job and that is a big reason why people resist change.  Individual coaching gives people the space to explore how to use their unique strengths to succeed, and to identify where they need additional support.

It is far more impactful to ask people to share where they have confidence in their abilities and where they think they may need additional support than it is to dictate a prescribed training program.  When people can exercise their own agency over their development, they are more likely to rise to challenges.   Additional supports like skill building, reassignment of work to other less impacted people, or stopping some work are all positive responses to growth.  In our next post Grow Part B, we will provide a menu of support options individuals and teams can review and prioritize for the support they want to receive.

Make time for Skill Building

Innovation may require  an entirely new skill set.  It takes time to learn something new and to develop a level of proficiency and comfort. That amount of time is often underestimated, and performance expectations are not realistic.  It is important to  calibrate any expectations to the reality of what it takes to develop those skills, and creating an ongoing cycle of feedback helps make that calibration possible.

Normalize Feedback

Feedback can feel uncomfortable for any of us. No one wants to hear they aren’t doing a good job, or that something is not working. The key is to make feedback part of ongoing operations, and to set the expectation that we can talk about what is working and as well as what is not working without it being seen as a penalty.

To make feedback a source of growth, leaders can:

·         Be open to publicly receiving feedback themselves

·         Gather  insights while experiences are fresh.

·         Provide balanced feedback with what is working as well as what is not working.

·         Acknowledge efforts and attitudes that are helping the situation

·         Keep feedback psychologically safe with a focus on learning, not blame.

·         Close the loop by sharing  what was heard, what will be done with it, and why.

·         Use feedback to refine systems, not just individual performance.

When people see that their feedback shapes real decisions, it increases their comfort with the change, and they tend to engage more deeply and take greater ownership for outcomes.

Balance Stretch and Sustainability

Growth requires care. People can’t grow indefinitely without renewal. An organization that’s always stretching without recovering eventually burns out its talent and dulls its creative edge.

Leaders can balance stretch and sustainability by:
• Building moments for review and recalibration into the work rhythm.
• Recognizing and celebrating progress to reinforce energy.
• Adjusting workloads to match developmental readiness.
• Encouraging self-reflection so people can see their own growth over time.

Sustainable progress depends as much on rest and reflection as it does on effort and ambition.

From Change Project to Learning Culture

The goal of this stage in the ALIGN Framework is to make growth habitual. When growing becomes part of how the organization operates, change naturally occurs.  Growth is how alignment deepens. It’s where progress becomes self-sustaining because people have the tools, trust, and confidence to keep learning.

In practice: coaching, mentoring, leadership development, peer learning circles, skill-building workshops, and feedback systems that reinforce alignment and growth.