Asking 'what do you value' rather than 'what do you do'
Steven Forth is co-founder and managing partner at Ibbaka. See his skill profile here.
My business partner Karen Chiang and I have been travelling in Europe recently. We were invited to Europe to meet with a major Dutch insurance company to discuss technologies for workforce transformation and we added some time in London to meet with customers there. When travelling one gets to meet many new people. On the first leg of our flight, Karen met a very interesting fellow who works in innovation collaboration for part of the Volkswagen group.
When she mentioned this to me I started by asking her "What does he do?" I think this is a pretty common question, and when we meet new people we often ask this question. But then I paused to think. Is this the best way to understand another person? What if we started our conversations with other people in a different way? Instead of asking them about what they do, we could try to find out what is important to them. For the past few days, I have been asking people about what they value, rather than what they do.
I am finding this leads to much richer conversations and that it makes it harder for me to pigeon hole people and put them into some sort of convenient box. At an industry Christmas party, I asked an angel investor about why she invests. For her, it is about paying it forward and taking the wealth she has accumulated and her experiences and using them to create future wealth, for her family and for the people she invests in. She saw the investment as an important part of how she will make the world better for her own children.
I also spoke with a young entrepreneur. His goal is primarily to take control of his own work experience and to be responsible for the work he does. He also values the ability to create something, to take an idea and make it real. When I am in due diligence on a potential investment the first question I ask is "Why are you doing this?" and "Why did you choose to do this given all of the other things you could be doing?" I think these questions get to motivation and values, and these are a more important screen than the business itself.
At Ibbaka Talent we are beginning to approach this through our work on mind mapping career goals. This is something we continue to explore. See an early report on this work in Mind mapping career goals gives the insights needed for real collaboration. The below figure shows Karen and my mind maps and how they connect.
In 2019, we will continue to collect mind maps, convert them into formal graphs (using RDF) and look for patterns. In 2020, we hope to find a way to make this part of our skill management platform. More immediately, we believe we can capture some of this into behaviours.
In 1H 2019, we will make our competency model management tools available. These tools are highly configurable, many different models can be created, managed and evolved, but one of the default models will have the following structure.
Discipline (or Business)
Jobs
Roles
Behaviours
All parts of the hierarchy can be reused across multiple models (we have seen as many as 30 competency models within one admittedly large company). Skills, Learning Resources and other common elements can be attached at any and all levels of this hierarchy.
The part of the hierarchy that I want to call out here is behaviours, as I think these link closely to our values (or at least I hope they do). What are some examples of behaviours and how do they connect to values?
The best practice for a behaviour or behavioural competency is to begin with a verb.
Asks for advice
Description: When faced with a decision, seek out the input of key stakeholders, colleagues and independent people with relevant expertise.
Skills: Active Listening, Relationship Management, Critical Thinking.
Makes decisions
Description: Develops clear options for decisions, evaluates the decisions taking into account positive and negative outcomes and risks, asks for advice (yes, behaviours can reference other behaviours), communicates the decision clearly and follows up on execution.
Skills: Critical Thinking, Strategic Choice Making (a la Roger Martin), RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) Models, Active Listening, Communication, Task Management.
Pays attention to details
I put this one in as it is not a behaviour. I evidence and I am not a good candidate for roles that require this, like Project Manager.
Description: Keeps track of decisions, tasks, commitments, following up on status and keeping accurate records and communicating status to people who need to know.
Skills: Task Management, Record Keeping, RACI Models, Communication.
Our values are critical to who we are and the choices we make. They should be part of how we work. Ibbaka Talent does not yet address values directly, but we think we have a path towards this, first through the behaviours in our competency models and longer term by sharing mind maps of career goals.
As the new year approaches, have conversations about values with the people you work with. Please let us know how you think we can weave value into our platform.
