Glossary
Every term, defined plainly.
The vocabulary of Individual Development Plans and of Jobulary, one sentence each.
- Individual Development Plan (IDP)
- A written, time-bound plan for one person’s professional growth: current evidence, a goal, a few outcome objectives, a path of actions, and a way of knowing it worked.
- Big Audacious Goal (North Star)
- The long-range ambition — years out, in the person’s own words, with the reason it matters. Everything else in the plan is in service of it.
- Horizon
- The 6–24 month layer between the Big Goal and a cycle: up to five capabilities, each with a target band and a date.
- Cycle
- A 90, 180 or 365-day period holding three objectives and their paths. It opens with a plan and closes with an outcome review and a new reading.
- Outcome objective
- A statement of what will be observably different by the end of the cycle, with a “known by” that says how you will tell. The opposite of an activity such as “complete a course”.
- 70/20/10
- A guideline that development comes roughly 70% from experience at work, 20% from other people, and 10% from formal learning. Jobulary orders every path practice → exposure → learn.
- Practice item
- Something to try at work, with a stated way of knowing whether it worked. The largest share of every path.
- Exposure item
- Learning from people — a conversation, shadowing, mentoring or feedback.
- Learn item
- Formal study, always pointing at a real course in a real catalogue. A plan may carry none.
- Competency Spine
- Jobulary’s open framework of behavioural competencies in six clusters, each anchored to a public framework. Client frameworks map into it.
- Band
- One of five named ranges on the single 0–100 scale. Bands are readings of the same number, never a separate score.
- Measured
- A score from a validated assessment instrument, labelled with when it was taken.
- Self-rated
- A person’s own placement on the scale. Useful, but a different kind of fact from a measurement, and always labelled.
- Measurement error
- The amount a score can move between two sittings when nothing about the person has changed. Growth must exceed it to be reported.
- Held steady
- The honest verdict when a change is within measurement error for its interval — a legitimate result, not a failure.
- Reportable change
- A change larger than the threshold for its interval and precision: about 8 points over 90 days, 6 over six months, 5 over twelve months.
- Check-in
- A short, private note on what moved, what blocked and what changed. Never visible to sponsors or managers.
- Reflection
- Private writing to yourself inside the product. There is no read path to it for any sponsor, under any configuration.
- Sponsor
- An organisation paying for a person’s cycle. It sees objectives and progress, never private notes, and loses access when the engagement ends.
- Passport
- The permanent record of a person’s assessments, completed cycles and credentials, across every employer.
Put the vocabulary to work
Build a plan that uses every one of these — honestly.