In my last post, Being yourself, I wrote about how interesting it was to connect a role from a competency model to an individual skill profile. In my case, I was able to see how my core skills and target skills support (or not) a given role that I play or am interested in. This time, I want to write about the next level - a team.

"A group of individuals working together to achieve a goal." This is a simple definition of a team. Makes sense. But, there is so much more when it comes to finding and being in the right team. Team members can compete with each other or collaborate. Competing is actually not bad. It takes you out of your comfort zone, which is always good. What connects the team together is the commitment to whatever the team agreed on. What about a tribe? Is it a version of a team, or is it something very different? I like the word "tribe." There is a sense of belonging. One can build a tribe around ideas, beliefs or common interests. What I am trying to figure out is can we build a tribe around skills.

Ken Robinson, in his book The Element, writes about "domains" and "fields." Domains are the disciplines or activities people are engaged with. Fields, according to Robinson, are people in those domains. Connecting with people who share the same passion opens many possibilities. When I think about a team, for some reason, music comes to my mind. Perhaps that is why we choose an image of an orchestra for one of the previous versions of the platform. Different players working together to produce an outcome where the whole is greater than the individual pieces—a sense of connection, synergy, or magic.

Kind of Blue is one of my favourite jazz albums. It was one of the first records I added to my phone, and I listen to it often when I work. You can imagine my surprise when I found it in Robinson's book. I love Miles Davis, and this is probably my favourite record. But I was not aware of how this record come to life. I am sure Miles Davis fans know all the details. However, I was reading this for the first time. When Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Julian Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb entered the recording studio, they did not know anything about what they were going to play. Davis presented them with a few ideas or sketches, then he turned on the tape recorder. For the next several hours, they support, challenge, inspire each other in a totally spontaneous way—a superb example of what is possible when you put together the right people with the right skills. Since 1959, Kind of Blue is one of the best selling jazz albums. A masterpiece.

"There is Japanese visual art in which the artist is forced to be spontaneous. He must paint on a thin stretched parchment with a special brush and black water paint in such a way that an unnatural or interrupted stroke will destroy the line or break through the parchment (...) The resulting pictures lack the complex composition and textures of ordinary painting, but it is said that those who see well find something captured that escapes explanation."
~ Improvisation in Jazz by Bill Evans

Of course, playing music together may be very different from being on a consulting or engineering team, but the principles remain the same. When a group of people share a common goal, when they trust each other, and when their skill-sets complement and supports the desired outcome, the magic will happen regardless of the discipline. And as Bill Evans wrote, this often escapes explanation.

For us at Ibbaka Talent, the team is a central part of the platform. When you are together on a team, your skills can be evaluated and confirmed by your teammates. The people you are working with can suggest skills to you and recommend learning resources, not to mention helping you to find mentors. In essence, the team is central to how Ibbaka Talent connects everything together. It is a first order set of connections in the Ibbaka Skill Graph. There is more - a manager can advertise that a team that is looking for members, and if you are interested, you can request to join a team. As always, the underlying skills allow the system to figure out the best allocation and distribution of talent.

Finding your tribe may not be easy. Some spend years searching for it. For others, there is often a bit of luck to connecting with the right person at the right time. For most, it is hard work to evaluate personal skills, talents and knowledge. Although we can't help with everything, Ibbaka Talent offers the best way to understand and organize skills and find people with complementary skill sets. It is bringing you closer to your finding your tribe as well as your element - the thing you love doing and are really good at. Consider scheduling a demo of Ibbaka Talent. I can assure you, you will not regret it.