Core Concepts: Complementary, Associated and Connecting Skills
By Gregory Ronczewski, Director of Product Design at Ibbaka. See his skill profile.
Definition: Complementary Skills, Associated Skills and Connecting Skills
Let's start with definitions from Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Complementary
serving to fill out or complete
mutually supplying each other's lack
relating to or constituting one of a pair of contrasting colours that produce a neutral colour when combined in suitable proportions
Associated
joined together often in a working relationship
related, connected or combined together
Connecting
to join (two or more things) together
to join with or become joined to something else
to think of (something or someone) as being related to or involved with another person, thing, event, or idea
Skills are social creatures. They like to stick together and support each other, very much like people. So it is not surprising that the skills taken out of the context are nothing more than abstract labels or concepts. However, finding out the skills becomes fascinating when a host is present, be that an individual, a team or a company or even a set of goals. A bit like archeology, sorting layer after layer leads to discovering connections. Some obvious but some quite surprising.
There is a natural tendency to organize or categorize, and we are not different here at Ibbaka Talent. Apart from skill categorization that helps us sort the skills on the platform into eight categories - Foundation, Business, Design, Technical, Social, Tool, Domaine and Other - we also use another grouping to deepen our knowledge and inform the Skill Graph. These are Complementary, Associated and Connecting Skills. Let's look at those three groups in more detail.
What are complementary skills?
These are independent skills that create more value when used together. For example, User Experience Design (UX) and User Interface Design (UI) are Complementary Skills. They are independent of each other, so it is possible to be very good at one and be poor at the other. But if you want to build anything much more complex than a simple web page, you need them both. Or, let's use another example - a knife and fork. Of course, you can use a knife or fork separately, but there are times when having both takes the experience to a whole new level. With complementary skills, there is no expectation that an individual will have complementary skills. When used together, they are more than the sum of their parts.
What are associated skills?
Associated skills are different from complementary skills are. They are skills that you expect to find together in the same person - they form skill clusters. And if one in a set of closely associated skills is missing, one loses confidence in claims about the other skills. What would you make of a salesperson who claims to have excellent negotiation skills but poor closing skills! Negotiation and Closing are associated skills. If a front-end engineer claimed JS and HTML but had a low rating in CSS, one would downrate him as a front-end developer and question his real expertise in JS and HTML. Associated skills are critical data structures in advanced skill management systems.
Connecting Skills show how three skill profiles relate to each other.
What are connecting skills?
This is probably the most important way skills are connected. People use connecting skills to relate two (sometimes three) skill clusters. Connector skills can live within a person, integrating different areas of expertise, or they can help two people work together. People with solid connector skills can contribute to cross-pollinating two fields. You often see this as new areas emerge – data visualization or social learning are both built around connecting skills.
Connecting skills for data visualization:
Data Management, Data Analysis, Data Modelling, Bayesian Statistics
Connecting skills for social learning:
Learning Design, Social Media, Content Curation, Group Gardening, Mentoring, Relationship Management
Connecting skills are also critical to team communication. They connect skill clusters between people. Our research shows that teams with few connector skills tend to underperform, even when they otherwise have the same skill profile. Connector skills help people build shared mental models and shared ways of talking with each other. In many engineering and scientific fields, mathematics provides strong connecting skills. In business, a knowledge of how a profit and loss statement and balance sheet work can be connecting skills between finance and business leaders.
Using associated skills, complementary skills and connecting skills
Finding associated, complementary and connecting skills is the first step. The real magic happens when skills are connected to skills, to people, roles and goals. It leads to discovering potential and finding ways to put it to work. How would you categorize your skills? Can you find any connecting skills? How about associated skills? Ibbaka Talent offers a central space to organize skills and discover their potential, starting with the individual and ending with a company.
Core Concepts: Skill Management and Competency Modelling
Complementary, Associated, Connecting Skills (this post)
Competency Framework and Competency Model
Coming soon …
Skill Assessment
Core Concepts: Pricing and Customer Value Management
Coming soon …
Value Metric
Value Driver
Economic Value Driver
Emotional Value Driver
Community Value Driver
Value Model
Pricing Model
Connecting Value and Pricing Models
Pricing Design
Package Design
Price Elasticity of Demand
Cross Price Elasticity
Interactions of Cross Price Elasticity and Price Elasticity of Demand
Value Based Market Segmentation
Value Path
Lifetime Value of a Customer (LTV)
Value to Customer (V2C)
Value Ratio
Economic Value Estimation (EVE)
Willingness to Pay (WTP)
Pocket Price Waterfall
Customer Value Journey
Customer Value Management
