Growth V.S. Development

Lately, I’ve been thinking about developing different skills.  To do well in my job, I need to have a good balance between the ongoing practice of soft skills such as communication, delegation, and leadership and the utilization of my hard skills like coding, modeling, and advanced analytics.  I realized that our balance of implementing hard and soft skills varies depending on many factors: age, health, education, profession, and occupation.

Having been through the first two years of Serena and now watching baby Griffin become more solid everyday, I’m seeing a lot of growth in my kids.  I’m looking forward to experiencing their continuing growth.  I’m sure the journey will be worthwhile, though interesting…

The curious side of me wonders, what is the difference between growth and development?  I did some poking around on the good old Google, and here is what I found.

Growth

  • When something grows, it shows an increase in something we can count and measure.
  • A tree can grow.  A child can grow.  A company can grow.  A bank account can also grow.
  • Growth does not take into account how it grows or what it took to add to its overall sum.
  • Economic growth is typically just a number, often GDP, but it is often the only thing that is touted as a measure of success.
  • Growth by itself cannot measure development.

Development

  • Development encompasses many things, but it is shown by the qualitative improvement of circumstances.  As something develops, the quality of the whole improves.
  • As a tree develops, it will not only grow, but also be able to reproduce, bear fruit, and continue growing.
  • When an economic situation develops, not only can profits increase, but also the working conditions are improved.
  • Economic development in a community or country leads to better overall living standards and opportunities to improve.

Growth v.s. Development

  • Growth and development might affect each other, but they are not dependent on each other.  They are not the same.
  • Growth may happen despite any development.
  • Development can happen but there may be very little growth.
  • Sometimes, if something is not growing, it needs to develop to get to that growth.  If something cannot develop, there may need to be growth in a certain area, like funding, before anything can be done to improve the overall situation.

 

Reference:

  • https://blog.udemy.com/difference-between-growth-and-development/
  • http://www.diffen.com/difference/Economic_Development_vs_Economic_Growth
  • https://www.udemy.com/draft/57288/?utm_campaign=content-marketing-blog&tc=blog.differencebetweengrowthanddevelopment&utm_content=post35146&utm_source=blog&utm_medium=udemyads&xref=blog