Our Competency Modelling module is ready. We are working with a few early adopters of our technology, observing and learning from subject matter experts or SMEs as they lead the design of jobs and roles and implement them as competency models. One thing we saw right away is the need to continually shift perspective as you make your way through the complexity of a model. What skills and what level of experience needs to be added to a role? Then, what place will this role take in the model? It is a constant zoom-in and zoom-out process. The ability to see the job or role description seems critical. Not surprisingly, knowing the context is the key. A complex system can not be designed in isolation.

Christopher Alexander, in his book A New Theory of Urban Design, writes about the idea of “growing whole” – a feeling of wholeness which one can experience visiting the cities of the past. Organic unity. He proposes the following seven rules:

1. Piecemeal growth
2. The growth of larger wholes
3. Visions
4. The basic rule of positive urban space
5. The layout of large buildings
6. Construction
7. Formation of centres

I found many similarities in the above approach and designing a Competency Model. Specifically, number three, visions, which is about the content and individual character of each element, as well as number four – the need to create a positive space. A space connecting rather than dividing, in an organic form that emerges not from artificial objectives, but the natural use of the space.

Building a Competency Model has similar challenges. We can propose many different structures for a model. A model can include jobs, roles, behaviors, even values and of course skills. But the model may not reflect the reality of work. Competency modeling is not really about capturing what currently exists. Of course, one can start with a skill inventory, gather data from surveys and interviews, and speak with experts, but the real magic happens when you adjust your lens and focus on future jobs and roles. What skills will we need for the future as we deal with Adaptation to Climate Change (one of the open competency models we will be supporting next year)? Or, what roles will be critical in the future of mining (research we did for one of our key clients)? Again, some of the roles do not exist yet, nor the skills required to carry them out. But with a ‘wholeness growth approach,’ an initial seed can be planted and then cultivated by the actual people who will use the system.

A job or a role in a competency model will often have a set of behaviours and skills set at a certain level of expertise. It should not stop people who are working in such a job or role from adding to the system the actual skills that they are using. These skills may be different from the must-have and should-have skills expressed designated in the model. Opening the model up to these skills supports organic growth. AI learns from this and will use this to suggest skills to evolve the design. One should never lose sight of the broader context. Consider not only neighbouring models, companies or industries, but also how a job or role stands in relation to the global formation of skills.

I was searching for an illustration that would work well for this post, and somehow Pointillism kept coming into view. Its colourful dots applied in patterns produce a very abstract image if observed up close. Only from a distance does the real subject emerge from this seemingly random application of paint. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac are among the most recognized neo-impressionist painters, who helped to shape the Pointillist style. Interestingly, Signac started his professional career in architecture before deciding on painting.

The top image for this post is a close-up of a portrait of Signac’s wife Berthe, painted at Saint-Tropez. Here is a larger fragment of the same painting. All of a sudden, the random distribution of colour makes sense — a similar thing happens when working closely with a competency model. You are surrounded by an array of skills categorized and organized by experience. Without paying attention to the job or role description, level of work, if there is one, and even broader context, the result will be missing a critical view. Some of the central ideas that we are developing are built around free, open-source models that you can re-use or combine into your custom competency model.

When combining models, the context becomes even more important. Along with the competency model module, we are working on a knowledge centre, which will serve as a central repository for all questions and answers related to skill profiles, skill management and, of course, building and designing a competency model.

It is about the future. The future of work. Future skills. The future of HR and learning.

The golden age has not passed yet…