Core Concepts: Critical Skill
By Gregory Ronczewski, Director of Product Design at Ibbaka. See his skill profile.
Definition of a Critical Skill
Critical Skill: A skill required to perform a task or achieve a goal.
Ibbaka has written many articles on Critical Skills: from Sketching and Problem Solving to Curiosity and Patience. The truth is that the list will change depending on the industry, company, team or individual. However, some of the skills listed as critical by many sources point to a few that clearly stand out from the rest. These are skills that cross borders, categories or domains. Not surprisingly, they are all about Observation, Analysis, Reflection, Creativity, and Listening.
On Ibbaka Talent, we list all of these as "foundational skills" - the skills necessary for learning or supporting other skills. For instance, contrary to popular views, Math, English, Physics or History are not critical skills for a high-school student. Problem-solving, Listening, Asking Questions, Analyzing and Challenging Opinions are. Unfortunately, the technology and the overall trend of accepting everything at face value can make critical skills seem less critical. Nevertheless, independent, Critical Thinking as well as Researching and Inquiring form the foundation of all the skills in the world.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." ~ Aristotle.
For sure, specific sets of skills labelled "critical" will accompany any domain or industry. In the past, I wore a teacher's hat, helping first and second-year art students find their way through the labyrinth of typography and design. For me, Listening, Critical Thinking, and Providing Feedback set the tone for my relationship with each of my students - Design or History of Type was secondary.
For an accountant, I suspect, Accounting itself is a critical skill. So is a coding language for a software developer. However, they both will significantly benefit from well-developed Critical and Analytical Thinking. As Google advises, when one searches for "critical skills," - "The skills that we need to be able to think critically are varied and include Observation, Analysis, Interpretation, Reflection, Evaluation, Inference, Explanation, Problem-solving, and Decision Making. Specifically, we need to be able to: Think about a topic or issue in an objective and critical way." I would add Curiosity and Imagination to this list. I found another listing showing five critical thinking skills. Interestingly, Thinking was listed as a skill. I guess we do need Thinking, right? The first skill listed is Observation, while Analysis occupies the second spot. Ironically, observing and analyzing are often missing from our daily activities.
A complement to critical thinking is creative thinking or generative thinking. The role of critical thinking is to ask questions and evaluate answers. Creative thinking is the other side of this, it is the skill of generating relevant solutions and exploring options and alternatives.
What are your thoughts on Critical Skills? How would you define such a set, and what are the criteria governing your selection? We would love to hear from you. So do send us a note to info@ibbaka.com. Meanwhile, join Ibbaka Talent to access over eleven thousand skills, their definitions, and above all, relationships to other skills that we found very helpful.
Core Concepts: Skill Management and Competency Modelling
Critical Skill (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