A guide to planning learning strategies for the future
Steven Forth is a Co-Founder of TeamFit. See his Skill Profile.
Skill and competency models are often used to shape learning and development strategies.
In the normal process, the skill and competency model is used to organize skill assessments (there are many ways to do this) and then a skill gap analysis is performed. This gap analysis can be carried out at many levels. Typical questions are ...
Does this person have the skills they need for their current job (or projects)?
What skills does this person need to move into a new job?
What skills does this person need to realize potential skills and put them to work?
Does this business unit have the people with the skills it needs?
How are skill profiles related to actual performance?
One of our customers is going beyond this and asking "What skills will we need for our future business?" It is building its future competency models and looking for the gaps between present and future.
All these questions are answered through skill gap analysis, which is one of the most quickly evolving parts of the human resources and learning and development environment and a good place to put machine learning to work.
But once you have identified the skill gaps, what then?
This is where the learning and development team steps in. Their goal is to close these skill gaps and make sure the people and teams have the skills needed to deliver results. One question that often comes up is "Do we train for the skill or for the role or for the job?"
There is no one answer to this question. To come up with a strategy on this one has to dig a bit deeper.Let's start by defining a few terms. Learning and development people often have vigorous arguments over terminology. At Ibbaka Talent, we use dynamic components to describe relationships within a competency model. Some examples of components are:
Job: This is a formal position within an organization. It is what generally shows up on a business card or LinkedIn profile. Jobs are often slotted into hierarchies that define levels of seniority (that are often used in the compensation model) and reporting relationships.
Role: Most jobs, especially at the senior level, will be comprised of several different roles. In some organizations, the term 'competency' is preferred to 'role.' A Director of Product Management may play several different roles, from Project Management to Product Marketing to Technology Strategy. The same roles may also show up in different jobs. The job Implementation Manager may also include the Project Management role.
Behaviour: Many competency models distinguish 'behaviours' from skills. A skill is what you are able to do. The behaviour determines if and how you do it. These are sometimes referred to as 'attitudes' rather than behaviours (and there are passionate arguments between very smart people about the differences between these concepts).
Credential: In many industries, credentials are important and can even be required by regulators. One has to be able to attach required credentials to jobs. One can generally infer a set of skills from a credential as well.
Skill: Skills are the most granular part of TeamFit's underlying data model. We connect skills into a skill graph so that we can help you understand the connections between skills. We also categorize skills (some of our larger customers also use their own skill categorization systems).
Skills are broken down to the following default categories:
Foundational: The skills used to build other skills, everything from learning to sciences and mathematics to critical thinking.
Business: The skills used to conduct business, from management to sales to accounting.
Technical: The skills used in technical disciplines, in practice many of these are engineering skills.
Design: The skills used to in the design disciplines (architecture, interactive design, learning design and so on).
Tools: The specific hardware and software tools used to do work, often it is important to specify the exact version of the tool.
Domain: Knowledge (rather than skills as traditionally understood) about disciplines, industries, geographies cultures and even specific organizations.
Social: The skills we use to work with other people, including collaboration and communication.
Other: There are always some skills that do not fit happily into any of the above categories. Can you suggest a few? Send them to info@teamfit.co
So how granular should your training design be? To develop your strategy start by asking the following questions.
Look carefully at the actual skill gaps. Are they for point skills or skill sets?
Are they granular, limited to specific skills that are not connected? Are they wider but grouped into a tightly connected set?Is the skill a very general one (like project management) that has many component skills, or is it more concrete (managing budget tradeoffs).What categories do they skill gaps fall in to? Are they all in the same category or are they scattered across several categories?If the skills are granular, disconnected or fall into different categories, then you should start by developing the training interventions for the point skills.If the skills are high level, part of a tight constellation of other skills that are frequently used together or are closely connected to a role or larger competency, then you should consider training on the skills together.
Are the skills used primarily in isolation or are they collaborative skills that are used with other people?
Some skills are used by individuals and are not reliant on the work of other people.Other skills are only meaningful in the context of collaborative work. Skills that are used by one individual are often good targets for online learning. The more complex the skill set, the more likely it is that a full curriculum will need to be developed. By complex we mean that the skill is high-level and that there are many component or associated skills.When the skill or skills are used together with other people you need to take a different approach. This is where team learning comes in. Team learning generally has to be done in a collaborative environment where people work together to learn. For point skills, this can be done with lunch and learns or half day seminars. It can even be built into the team's regular cadence meetings. For more complex skill sets, this will not be enough. For a complex collaborative skill set, we suggest you develop communities of practice and invest in learning communities.
Ibbaka Talent can give you insight into the type of skill gaps you may have, at an individual, team or organizational level. It can also help you understand the nature of the skills needed. With this information in hand, you can develop much more effective learning strategies.
For all of us, success will depend on constantly building and applying new skills. Increasingly, we cannot do this alone and we need to build the skills that connect us to our co-workers and complement the skills that other people have.
