From The Naked Leader Experience
Competency frameworks will be the downfall of organisations.
Competency based training or assessment are finished.
Why?
Firstly, the Boredom Factor – when you hear the word competency, does the blood rush to your head? Does your heart dance with passion and excitement? No, I thought not!
Secondly, because Competencies are based on three, fundamental and inter-related flaws:
1. That if we work on our ‘weaknesses’” our strengths will look after themselves.
2. Because everyone must be trained in all of the competencies our organisation needs, for us to perform well.
3. People are motivated by all of this stuff.
Wrong!
Well, sorry, that is unfair.
There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ – there is only what takes you closer to what you want to achieve, and what takes you further away.
So, when I say 'wrong' I mean that competencies take you further away from what you want to achieve, because:
1. If we work on our ‘weaknesses’ our strengths will not look after themselves.
All the evidence now tells us that for our strengths to flourish, and develop further, we have to use and apply them on a regular basis. If we do not, they stagnate. Isn’t it strange? We know this of our golf, when we learn a new language, of our hobbies, however we seem to think there are different ‘rules’ in the world of work. There aren’t!
2. Everyone must be trained in all of the competencies our organisation needs, for us to be a mediocre organisation.
So we draw up a list of the competencies we need in an organisation:
Some examples of current competency lists from two direct competitors – same business, same market, same customer targets:
| Organisation One | Organisation Two |
| Speed of decision-making | Ability to analyse and interpret information |
| Ability to think strategically | Agile – able to act in the now |
| Innovation and out of the box thinking | Understanding of processes |
| Project Management | Programme Leadership |
| Knowledge Acquisition | Sharing of knowledge |
| Planning abilities | Ability to act on instinct |
| Communication Skills | Listening |
So, to make it slightly more complex, many organisations have different levels of competency requirements for different “levels” of jobs within the organisation (grade / hierarchy). And then within each of these levels, there are several degrees of competency. Again, taking actual words from an actual company:
Aware
Knowledgeable
Proficient
And to take it one final step into the bizarre, the requirement for each of these is not assessed for each person; they are assessed against each job!
And the competency based argument grandly concludes that this system delivers a motivated workforce trained in the total needs of an organisation.
Sorry, what it really delivers is a group of general all rounders, and little more.
It is time to put aside competencies forever, and focus on the passion, energy and commitment of people.
And to do this, we must focus on their:
• Wants – Dreams and desires
• Strengths – Gifts and talents
• Value – Their number one need, to be valued
And before you shout, “but what about the needs of our organisation?” remember your people ARE your organisation, and if you do not have the right strengths in these people, then you are either in the wrong business, or you have the wrong people. Either way, you are doomed, and no competency based framework will save you.
Empowerment - Permission
Closely linked to competencies, is the concept of empowerment.
It is simply not possible to “empower” another human being, because they are already empowered, and were the very day they were born.
Does your new-born baby need to be empowered to wake up on the hour, every hour?
Or to throw up all over your best friend’s new dress?
No, of course not.
Empowerment is one of the saddest jokes we have ever introduced into organisations, because we have used it to mean “permission.”
And when people, teams and projects await permission, their potential is not being released, or their talents awakened and used.
And we can do this, by putting together our teams on the basis of their skills.
Skill Teams
What is a Skill Team?
It is a team put together on the basis of the project or task needed, and the skills needed to achieve a successful outcome
Sounds like any team, what’s different here?
Each person is in the team (they are invited to join, or they can apply) on the basis of their number one skill and strength, provided they enjoy developing and using that skill.
So, for example, you might need a project team that has six defined skill needs:
Outstanding communicator and persuader
Strategy – the big vision
Planning and analytical
Negotiation and influence
Deliverer – someone who always completes and finishes a project
Innovation – Someone who can inject fresh and original ideas
So you have six people, who are in the team to work as a team on all areas, each having one area of expertise on which they will take the lead.
Hang on, that is a recipe for disputes and disagreements
Putting more than one human being in any team is a recipe for disputes and disagreements. But there is also the possibility of synergy and success. We have to make decisions that will maximise the chance of the latter.
While every skill team has an “expert” everyone’s opinions are to be listened to and valued, and if someone has to force their opinion down others throats the entire process will fail.
However, when members of the team appreciate the aims of the team and the part they can play, the mutual respect shown between different people in the team is massive.
After all, you have the person who will be the voice of the team to outside “stakeholders,” as well as someone who will achieve the best possible win-win deals with suppliers, internal and external.
You have the big picture person – the kind of guy who can share a dream and inspire others to see it and go for it, but whom so often then does not know how to implement it…well. You have such an implementer in the team, too.
Finally, and just as critically, you have the balance between the person who thinks up new ideas for breakfast. The person who can think of 300 different uses for a paper-clip, and who has ideas when everyone else only sees a brick wall, working alongside the planner – the meticulous, detail-driven, project spreadsheet obsessed godsend that every project needs.
Skill Teams are so powerful. They allocate people from every talent base needed, to ensure a balance of the right abilities, experience and knowledge. This produces a team that combines ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills.
Skill Teams can be extended to include contractors and third party suppliers, and when they have delivered, they disperse.
And, most critically, many skill-teams can operate at the same time, across different projects, departments and traditional hierarchies. It is not a fixed team, in a fixed location.
It is time.
Time to realise that people will do what they want, anyway, so we may as well encourage that, and time to unleash the talent, passions and awesome potential of our only asset – our people.
When we do that, we move beyond strategy, and beyond day to day work, and we start on what our working lives and organisations must be in the 21st Century, an exciting adventure.
I invite you to start right away – ask each person in your team to share, with each other, what they believe their top three skills are, and how these can be best applied for the team or project. As you discuss this, sit in a circle, in a private room. Respect each others thoughts and opinion. Feel the positive, constructive and open energy, and enjoy.
Make different choices in your teams and projects
From The Naked Coach
The more you do in the third column, the higher you will rise in any organisation, and the better prepared you will be to take your place as a Director, with Board level responsibility.
| Disabler | Choice One | Choice Two |
| “How can I write a departmental strategy when we don’t have a business one?” | Wait for a business strategy to be written. Grow cobwebs as you wait. | Go to your CEO and offer to help write such a strategy, facilitating the input from all areas in the organisation. |
| “Our projects are not clearly prioritised. How can I be expected to plan resources?” | Ask the CEO/Board to prioritise projects, please. And when they don’t, simply ask them again. When they finally do it, watch how many will be priority one. | Do it yourself, on the basis of the deliverable business value that each will provide. Every project must deliver such measurable value. Present at Board meeting. After the arguments subside you will have a prioritised list. |
| “We need to innovate more – how can I find time to do this?” | Never innovate. Worse still, hold an innovation session outside of day-to-day work, and stack up hundreds of ideas, adding to work pressure. | Innovate within the projects you are working on, by focusing on what you want to achieve (dreams and outcomes), not want you want to avoid (fears and risk). |
| “My key suppliers are at the root of many of my problems – they need to be brought into line.” | Wave the contract at them, no – hit them with it. Tell them that as the customer you are always right and, most importantly, threaten them, professionally of course. | Take the supplier out for a drink, and each take five minutes to share, openly, professionally and privately, what has gone wrong and what you most need from each other. |
| “More and more decisions on my team and projects are being made outside of my team; sometimes I am not even consulted.” | This is totally unacceptable. Go to the managers concerned and make it clear that you or your people must be involved in any and all key decisions. | If you are not advised, then you are not trusted. Most organisations are federal and don’t run on hierarchal lines. Embrace and encourage this, and lead the process as a facilitator and business leader. |
| “You say that to get promoted onto the Board my CEO has to like and trust me, yet I don’t like or trust them, what can I do?” | Make a long and logical presentation to them about how personalities should not come into such decisions, and that it is far more important that your area is represented at Board level. Good luck with that one. | Start liking and trusting them, or find another job. |
| “One person in my organisation seems to have a go at me/us no matter what we do – and they are a key influencer. It is getting me down.” | Show them the last three Service Level Agreements and vailability/project success figures and tell them to get off your back. Then ignore them. | Invite them to work in your department for a period, asking for their help and experience to improve what you do. |