Noticing something about yourself changes nothing on its own. A self-awareness action plan is the step that turns “I go quiet when the plan changes” into a different Tuesday.
It is a short working document — one or two pages — that you keep, revise and actually use. It is not a performance improvement plan (that is a formal process under Performance & Conduct Management), and it is not the same as a development plan, which is about skills and career direction. This one is about behaviour: what you do, in situations you can name.
What goes in one
Six parts. Skip any of them and the plan quietly stops working.
| Part | What it holds | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Starting picture | Your strengths, your gaps, where each came from (your own read, evidence, role profile, other people) | Without it you cannot tell later whether anything moved |
| Goals | Two or three, no more, each a behaviour in a named situation | Vague goals cannot be finished or failed |
| Strategies | What you will actually do differently, step by step | The goal is the destination; this is the route |
| Support | Who is involved, what you need from them, what learning or access is required | Most plans fail because they needed someone and never asked |
| Evidence | What will exist that shows it happened | Stops “I feel like I have improved” being the only measure |
| Review | Dates, who with, and what you will look at | An unreviewed plan is a note, not a plan |
Writing a goal that survives contact with a real week
Weak: be more adaptable. There is no situation in it, nothing to do, and no way to know.
Strong: when a priority changes mid-week, re-plan the rest of the week the same day and tell Caitlin what will move before she has to ask.
Test each goal against four things:
- Situation — when and where does this apply? Name the actual meeting, the actual work.
- Behaviour — what will you visibly do differently? Something an observer could see.
- Standard — how well, how often, by when.
- Evidence — what will exist afterwards? An email, a revised plan, a set of minutes, a note.
Two or three goals is the working limit. Six goals is a wish list, and the two that mattered get lost among them.
Strategies that work, and ones that do not
A strategy is the mechanism. “Try harder” is not a mechanism.
| Strategy type | Example | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger and response | ”When a priority lands, I open the work plan before replying” | Reactions that happen too fast to think |
| Structural change | Move the pack check to Thursday morning instead of Friday afternoon | Errors that cluster at predictable times |
| Checklist or template | Use the discussion notes template for every catch-up | Things you forget when busy |
| Scheduled reflection | Ten minutes on Friday, written down | Noticing patterns you would otherwise miss |
| Deliberate practice | Volunteer to take the minutes three weeks running | Skills that only improve by repetition |
| Feedback loop | Ask one specific question after each catch-up | Blind spots, and the outside-in half of self-awareness |
| Mentoring or shadowing | Sit with someone who handles escalations well | Behaviour that is easier copied than described |
| Learning | A short course, requested through Learning & development | Genuine knowledge or skill gaps |
| Support and safeguards | Agreed check-in when workload spikes | Patterns tied to pressure |
Match the strategy to the cause. A checklist will not fix a workload problem, and a course will not fix a habit.
Recording it
Use the self-awareness action plan template in the templates library — it has the six parts already laid out, plus space for feedback, revisions and review notes. Alongside it, a work reflection log is where the plan meets real work: one short entry per piece of work, written close to the event.
Keeping the documentation honest matters more than keeping it tidy:
- Write entries close to the event. A week later you will have edited the memory into something more flattering.
- Record what happened, not what you intended. “I went quiet for the first ten minutes, then asked what could move” is worth more than “handled it well”.
- Version the plan and date every change. v1, v2, v3 with dates shows the revision actually happened and why.
- Keep who said what. Feedback with a name and a date attached is evidence; feedback in general is a feeling.
- Store it where you will open it. Your own folder, named so you can find it — see Saving and sharing files.
- Decide what is private. The plan is yours. You choose what you share, and with whom. Anything you do share is handled under the Privacy Policy.
Getting feedback on the plan
A plan reviewed only by its author keeps every blind spot it started with. Show it to at least two people who see different parts of your work — your manager, and a colleague who works next to you.
Make it easy for them to be useful:
- Send it ahead, with a note saying what you want. Use the internal email template if it helps.
- Ask narrow questions. “Is goal 2 the right thing to be working on?” and “what would you add?” get better answers than “any thoughts?”
- Say what you want most. “Tell me the one thing I have missed” gives people permission.
- Listen without defending. Note it down, ask what better would look like, thank them. Argue with it later, on paper, if at all.
- Close the loop. Tell them what you changed. People who see their feedback used will give you more of it.
Expect at least one piece you did not want. That is usually the one worth acting on.
Revising and keeping it alive
Revision is not a sign the first plan was wrong. It is the plan working.
- Revise after feedback. Note who said what, what you changed, and what you deliberately did not change and why. Both directions count.
- Revise when the work changes. A goal about the weekly catch-up is dead if you stop attending.
- Revise when a goal is met. Close it out with the evidence attached, and either raise the standard or pick something else.
Then keep it moving:
| Rhythm | What you do |
|---|---|
| Each relevant piece of work | One reflection log entry — what you noticed, what you did, what happened |
| Weekly | Ten minutes: are the strategies actually being used? |
| Monthly | Compare against the starting picture. Update progress, adjust dates |
| Each formal review | Bring the plan and the log to your manager; agree what changes |
Beyond the current plan
When a plan is finished, the useful question is what keeps developing after it. Look for opportunities that already exist rather than inventing new ones: work that stretches you slightly, covering for someone, joining a working group, taking on the minutes, shadowing a role you are curious about, a short course, or an expression of interest in an internal role. The Career & development page sets out the pathways, and Learning & development covers how to request formal learning.
Pick the ones that match what actually motivates you — see Knowing how you work. Development chosen against your own drivers gets started and never finished.