Cookies or Crumbs?
Oct 19, 2025
Have you ever sent your entire team through the same leadership training program and wondered why only some people benefited?
Were you frustrated by expensive development initiatives that produced minimal behavior change and questionable return on investment?
Welcome to the development trap that treats unique individuals like interchangeable parts while wasting both money and human potential.
Here’s the brutal truth: cookie-cutter development programs produce crumb-sized results.
The Assembly Line Approach That Breaks People
Think about how deeply cookie-cutter thinking infiltrates our development cultures:
- We send different people through identical training programs.
- We measure development by hours completed rather than growth achieved.
- We focus on skill gaps instead of strength amplification.
- We create development plans based on job requirements rather than individual aspirations.
This one-size-fits-all obsession hails from the antiquated management model in which we imagined workers needed identical capabilities. Today's work culture requires diverse strengths, unique perspectives, and personalized growth paths that only emerge through individualized development.
Bake Whole, Authentic Cookies instead of Crumbs
The traditional approach to professional development said, "Here's what everyone needs to learn to succeed."
Individual Growth Plans (IDPs) say: "Here's how your unique strengths can grow to create exceptional value."
Golden 1 Credit Union, where all 2,100 employees have individual development plans, finds that personalized development approaches produce 40% better engagement scores and 35% higher retention rates. As Heather Andrade Neuman told me on our Work Positive Podcast, "Our IDPs really align with how do employees improve their skills in their current roles and what do they aspire to be."
Personalization as Performance Strategy
What do individual growth plans look like in practice? As Sabine Gedeon emphasized in our Work Positive Podcast conversation, people need to "understand their own strengths, interests, and aspirations before they can create meaningful growth plans."
In an individualized development culture:
- Growth conversations focus on personal aspirations, not just role requirements.
- Development plans address each person's unique strengths and interests.
- Managers invest time understanding what motivates each team member.
- Learning opportunities connect to individual career goals and life purpose.
Organizations with strong individual development practices see 15% higher engagement scores, 25% lower turnover rates, and 31% better internal promotion success rates.
Sweep the Crumbs from Your Development
One of the most wasteful elements in professional development is this crumbs-focus that ignores individual differences:
- "Everyone needs to go through this program."
- "We have a standard development track for all managers."
- "This worked for others, so it should work for you too."
Instead bake whole, authentic cookies. When planning someone's development, ask: "What does growth look like for you specifically? and “How can your unique strengths create exceptional value?"
Your Individual Development Challenge
Try these three whole cookie individualization actions this week:
- Conduct Growth Discovery: Ask three team members "What does professional growth mean to you personally?"
- Map Individual Strengths: Identify each person's unique talents and discuss how those can be developed further.
- Create One Custom Plan: Convert one crumb development approach into a personalized growth strategy for a specific team member.
The Work Positive Bottom Line
The best organizations today avoid crumb development programs for their people. They grow whole individuals authentically.
Stop training everyone the same way. Start growing each person uniquely.
Bake a whole, Becoming @ Work Positive culture!
What's your question about building effective listening loops in your organization? Ask Dr. Joey here.
Taken from Dr. Joey's newest book, Becoming @ Work: How to T.H.R.I.V.E. in Today's Culture.
Subscribe to the Work Positive Newsletter
Get the latest blog, podcast, and other resources weekly that help you Work Positive.
We detest SPAM and guard your information carefully. Unsubscribe any time we violate your trust.
