Down with pink and fluffy! There’s nothing soft about development…

Where did ‘soft, pink and fluffy’ ever come from as a term in relation to people’s development?  

You know – the kind of development that helps people have conversations they’ve been avoiding for months – which keep them awake at night?

Or giving people the confidence to step in when a more senior colleague is about to be just a little bit casual when it comes to the care of a vulnerable service user? 

Or helping people work out how on earth they can do this thing called ‘leadership’ with a team of 9 people they’ve just inherited?  

I definitely don’t see development as pink or fluffy – it’s way too important for the people working on it themselves – and the organisations paying for it. Development has a ‘hard edge’ – and something which has a place to help organisations deliver strategic goals, whilst also making people’s experience at work more rewarding and challenging.

So down with soft, pink and fluffy! Leave it in the bathroom…..and let’s start a different story, about development having a harder edge.