Communications Development Plan -- CDP

Instructions for CDP

The CDP is designed to provide students an opportunity to focus on their specific areas of needed communication improvement and to allow them to create a clear roadmap for reaching defined personal communication improvement goals. It is the key to students attaining measurable improvement in their leadership communication ability.
Objectives
This assignment allows students to accomplish the following objectives:
• Identify targeted improvement areas in oral or written communication
• Establish specific approaches to achieving goals in each
• Document a specific improvement approach
• Demonstrate a commitment to spending time on specific communication skill needs.
CDP Contents
The CDP should contain the following sections:
1. Current assessment – Strengths and weaknesses in leadership communication
a. Go back to the self-assessment forms provided in LC.
b. Include improvement needs in written, oral, interpersonal, and/or team communications (if very strong in areas, students may elect to focus only on those needing work, although most students usually choose to work on oral and written at a minimum).
c. Use the feedback obtained in CDP meetings on usage assessment, letter writing, and oral presentations.
2. Communication improvement goals – What students would like to achieve
a. Be very specific and make the goals measurable. For instance, just saying, “improve in oral presentations” is too broad. Instead, students should say, “Remove 95% of the ‘uhs’ from my presentation,” “always include sub-topics in introduction and conclusion,” “open up my gestures more so that I look natural and comfortable,” etc.
b. Establish levels from easier to reach to stretch goals.
3. Actions to achieve goals – Clear and specific activities to reach each goal
4. Timetable – Deadlines for reaching goals
a. Set deadlines reasonably spread throughout the semester that will ensure reaching overall improvement objectives by the end of the semester.
b. Be realistic in what can be accomplished by each deadline.
5. Measurement – Methods to determine progress, even on less tangible objectives, such as improving confidence in presenting.
6. CDP Partner’s Name and Role – A classmate who will serve as an improvement partner and a description of how the student sees the partner supporting his or her improvement efforts.
a. Students should select someone in their section to review the plan, discuss it with them, and serve as a source of support and feedback throughout the semester.
b. In defining their supporting role, students should be specific about the responsibilities they want them to assume that will be most helpful in their development. For example, they might want them to serve as someone who (1) encourages and coaches them, (2) monitors their progress, (3) provides specific feedback, or (4) holds them accountable for achieving their objectives.
c. This person should provide feedback to them throughout the semester in the improvement areas they have selected. For instance, if they need to remove the fillers from their presentations, the partner could count them for them when they deliver their impromptus or prepared presentations; or if they want to improve their writing, they could ask them to read something they have written and provide specific feedback on how they could improve it.

At the end of the course, the instructor will ask each CDP Partner to provide a brief statement on their partner’s progress.

Audience
The student, the instructor, and the selected CDP Partner will be the audience for this plan.

Deliverables
Format the plan in such a way that it is clearly logical and easy to follow. Students can use a table format similar to the one illustrated in LC if they wish. If they decide not to use a table format, keep the format brief and concise and use headings and bullets to make the content easy to read. Place the date and name as a footer on each page.

Evaluation Criteria

The communication faculty will grade the CDP as a writing assignment and expect students to meet the established standards for all written assignments. The instructor will grade the CDP using the following criteria:

• Honest and thorough assessment of strengths and weaknesses
• Specific goals with specific actions to accomplish each
• Realistic timelines
• Method to measure results
• Suggested commitment to improvement
• Logical organization
• Clear and concise style
• Correct usage
• No careless proofreading errors