Competency 2020

INTRODUCTION

Competency is a concept that means so many things to so many people. A number of different adaptations has over the years led to a varying level of success in its application. I believe the true power of competence and competency is yet to see realisation, as it is in the collective application of its variations that it’s real ability to transform learning can be found.

In some environments, such as the military and medical, competency is the language of learning and skill recognition. In other environments and geographies, such as the USA, competency has historically been associated with management skills, while in the UK it is largely associated with vocational skills. It is interesting to note that in many cases, one adaptation of competency does not even recognise the existence of another. In Australia, competency is normally only associated with vocational competency.

These sometimes polarised adaptations have confused the global community, and many a believer has come out in favour of one or the derision of another. Fortunately, this is starting to change as many educational structures and businesses realise that each adaptation can serve a purpose or strategy. In their combination, they can serve a much higher or complete purpose.

The new world of competency has the potential to become game changing in human, societal and organisational development.


My Own Introduction

I was awed by the potential of competency even from my first introduction to it in the late 1990’s, serving as a member of a technical institute promoting the professional development and certification of engineers working with safety related control systems. Since then, many safety related technical areas have seen competency come to prominence and even embodied in regulatory requirements. This will continue grow and expand as more management and technical areas are acknowledged as having a direct impact on safety.

My original interest was fuelled by the unique combination that this particular (vocational) competency attempted to intertwine; academic qualifications, practical experience, recognition of prior learning, mentoring and most importantly, (to me) demonstration of skill.

Now days, I am even more passionate about the subject of competency and competence, and hold it even greater regard, as my original exposure to competency is just one form of many adaptations of the concept, each one specialising in an area of corporate, organisational or human behaviour, and most importantly, each providing a measure, indication or guide to suitability, speciality, effectiveness and/or uniqueness.

I was driven to write and post these notes and observations because I see that the many variations and applications of competence and competency seem to cause some confusion, which I believe inevitably detracts from its wider acceptance or recognition, even with its power to transform. More importantly, I believe that competence and competency is an easily developed concept that can lead to exceptional individual and organisational performance and a strategic advantage when directed towards human, societal and organisational development.

The words competence and competency are largely interchangeable although a competence usually means a singular skill and competency usually means an overall measure consisting of many individual skills. Competencies is the plural of a singular competence. I will try and use this definition in these notes.

I would like to lay out some background, context and history before I can offer a view of what competency can become in the future.


TYPES OF COMPETENCY

There are four main adaptations of competency, most of which have been developed independently and can function completely independently of the other. Each has a substantial amount of independent research, especially Occupational Competency and towards its suitability and adaption to public educational frameworks and systems. More business and private oriented areas of competency, such as Corporate and Management have specific and copyrighted adaptations which have been further developed and tuned by consulting companies.

The main types of competency are;

1. Corporate and Organisational Competence - – the specific and/or unique capabilities that define an organisation. These can be published to demonstrate key skills and capabilities and/or can be used to internally identify an organisations unique characteristics for strategic and gap analysis purposes.

2. Management Competency – this was developed in the 1970’s and 80’s and used to identify the key human factors that contributed to success in a particular role, position or function. Recruitment and development could then be managed on this basis. This was the first real methodical introduction of ‘soft’ skills and emotional intelligence in to overall competency.

3. Professional Competency – this has been led by professional bodies representing doctors, engineers, accountants etc, and utilise a greater range of soft and hard competencies to potentially accommodate much more complex situations and potential outcomes.

4. Occupational Competency – this by far has had the biggest impact on society, the complete transformation of mainly vocational skills in to competency frameworks. The UK, Canada and Australia are some of the countries that have implemented competency based educations systems. Many other countries are considering using similar systems and have therefore reviewed the effectiveness of these systems in these countries. Overall, the introduction of competency in occupational education has been seen positively.

These are just some of the main adaptations or definitions of competence and all are used towards a particular objective and/or result. A very wide array of definitions and methodologies exist, some directed at a particular type of vocation or profession, some more generic. I like to think of a competence as a skill that can either be unique (as in organisational competence) or validated to an agreed standard (as in management, professional and occupational competence).


I believe that corporate competence stands out on its own as a form of competence, and is the domain of boards, senior management and management consulting. It is used to define the key qualities, attributes, and characteristics etc. that make an organisation unique. Once defined and understood, these are often referred to as an organisation’s ‘core’ competencies and can be used for strategic purposes in understanding what they really are, and what are likely to be needed. Core Competencies can be inherent (an organisation has done something good or bad for so long) or can be developed and acquired. Companies working in areas where no organisational core competence exists, can often lead to organisational failure. An example is that companies often move up and down a value chain, such a distributor moving into production to expand its operation. A distributor often has mainly core competencies that revolve around distribution and not production and many companies moving into what seem related areas of operation fail because they do not possess the core competencies required for that particular area. Organisation competence is a very powerful strategic business tool, and a very simple one to develop, harness and master.

Management, professional and occupational competencies are similar and related and the domain of the professional and occupational bodies that represent each respective area or skill and Human Resources (HR) in an organisational environment. They can use a wide array of soft and hard competencies which usually grow with the interpretative nature of more people based and management roles and positions. For example, management would tend to have more soft competencies than technical roles and positions. The more soft competencies that there can be or there are, the less that are broadly prescribed across a discipline, profession or trade. An organisation can develop a strategic advantage by developing its own competencies for example, such as providing more competency development for a greater part of the workforce in customer satisfaction.


ORIGINS OF COMPETENCE AND COMPETENCY

There is a very wide view on the exact origins, and largely dependent on which adaptation of competency is under consideration. Over the last 20 years, the streams are largely in line with the different type of competency described, in the longer history, there are two main streams;

1. Behavioural based
2. Task Analysis based

In some more recent adaptations, behavioural and task analysis is used collaboratively. Some professions, such as the medical, have evolved competence in their own right to an advanced level and at times unique to specific jurisdictions.

I have my own holistic view that is based on what I believe is one of the fundamental tenets of competence and competency; demonstration and validation of skill. At some point, someone (preferably a peer or assessor) needs to validate an individual’s competence, and this function or task is an age old practice that validates the transfer of a skill from a master or craftsman to an apprentice or student. Competence has always been and must be demonstrable. This I am sure, is thousands of years old although not specifically called competence at that point. The word ‘competent’ can be traced back to the 15th century and has origins in the Old French and Latin languages. I believe that competency is an age old principle that has found a new language and a modern adaptation.



Behavioural

A lot of credit is given to David McClelland who is considered the father of management competence based on behavioural analysis. McClelland published a paper in American Psychologist in 1973 which argued that academic and IQ tests were not good at predicting at whether someone could, or could not do their job well. In 1982 Richard Boyatzis published his influential guide to competency ‘The Competent Manager: A Model For Effective Performance’. McClelland and Boyatzis started and developed the Management Competence movement, which was behavioural based.

McClelland’s work tried to define an individual’s competencies as human factors which collectively led to an overall competence. The work started as he attempted to define the theory of competency as applied to areas including management, post secondary education, mental health and behavioural medicine. Work for the American Government’s Diplomatic Corp. in attempting to define ideal and outstanding candidates in the screening process developed in to a Behavioural Event Interview, where candidates were assessed against a wide range of individual competencies.

Boyatzis in 1982 was commissioned by the American Institute of Management to develop a generic model of managerial competency, where Boyatzis concluded that there were up to 19 generic competencies that exceptional managers could be assessed against. Boyatzis came up with what was considered the first thorough definition of management competency. A competency, he defined as the underlying characteristic of an individual which is related to effective or superior performance in a job.

McClelland’s and Boyatzis’s competency work became a benchmark in the identification and development of managers and executives in many of America’s leading corporations, although due to the processes’ time and expense, their original and largely behavioural skills approach has remained confined to high level corporate and management.

Some people believe that the work in behavioural competence started by McClelland and Boyatzis, was a failure, and was largely responsible for the decline in the competence movement overall in the 1980’s and 90’s.


Task Analysis

This is a methodology for the development of competency frameworks based on an analysis of the main tasks and skills required of a profession, vocation or trade from which a list of tasks and then competencies are developed. Tasks and skills can be grouped into modules, levels or tiers.

There is some indication that this approach started in Russia and Moscow in the 1860’s partly based on the conditioning theories of Pavlov and developed by Victor Della-Vos. This was picked up by the American movement and initially applied to manual and technical training.

The vocational and occupational competency based educational frameworks establish in the UK, Australia and Canada (amongst others), are largely task analysis based. This is seen by some as a ‘backward’ looking approach that becomes very rigid and prescriptive, although in more recent applications the task analysis approach is used as a starting point. The UK National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) competency based framework introduced in the 1980’s harmonised and transformed vocational training in the country. Although using slightly different approaches, the Canadian and Australian experience with the introduction of occupational competency frameworks are also seen as an overall success.

Task analysis can be a quick, systematic and comprehensive methodology towards defining the more standard, technical and procedural tasks that most occupational positions require. The task analysis approach to competency framework development does not normally (or does well) at indentifying soft skills.


Human, Societal and Organisational Development

My main interest and comments relate to Organisational Development although these areas are intertwined in the context of this section.

One of the reasons that competency has started to return to (or gain) prominence is that there is a growing disenchantment with education and training in itself, especially in the human and organisational development environment. Companies often need to fulfil obligations with respect to employees and their development, and employees are inevitably enrolled in training courses to satisfy this (a rule of thumb is that 3-5% of an employees wages should be spent of training every year). Training in its own right, often lead to no or poor outcomes, as training course attendees often can only account attendance only. There is a tremendous gap between this type of training and competency based training. In Australia, more than $5B is spent annually on training, I believe that less that 10% of this is competency based.

Competency based training is not the solution to education and training. It is a system or concept (in a number of adaptations) that can greatly enhance the development of individuals, disciplines, organisations and professions, especially ones that can benefit from a demonstration of skills to validate attainment of a certain level.

I refer to my own holistic view of competency and its age old origins, and I believe it has some foundation in the following quote written a long time ago;

“I hear and I forget,
I see and I remember,
I do and I understand.”
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)


Confucius’s quote has a modern rule and measurement;

We remember
• 10 % of what we read
• 20% of what we hear
• 30 % of what we see
• 50% of what we see and hear
• 70% of what we discuss
• 80% of what we do
• 95% of what we teach others

With some confusion removed, the benefits of different adaptations indentified and a more holistic view, competency is set to add tremendous value to training and education.


VALIDATION OF COMPETENCY

Who decides who is competent?

Fortunately there are some very good techniques, systems, frameworks and structures for the validation of competency, normally put together by industry or profession peers and leaders and undertaken by qualified assessors.

This is an extremely important and fundamental function in competency and the key to maintaining the standards for each respective area. For occupational areas, it is the industry bodies that represent those occupations that develop and maintain competency measurement. For soft skills, there are proprietary and open systems that can be integrated into wider frameworks.

A largely unrecognised aspect of competency (and many educational systems) is the role of a mentor in all learning development. I believe that a mentor should play a key role and one that is distinctly different from an assessor.

An assessor measures an individual’s level or skill against agreed criteria. This criteria can be very simple (observation and/or education) to complex (scenarios, demonstration, role playing, simulation etc). There are competencies associated with assessing.

A mentor plays an important role in human development, and is intended to guide, nurture, coach and challenge a student. I believe a mentor should have achieved certain competencies to ensure he/she is adequate equipped to carry out this role.

There is a serious lack of assessors and mentors in many areas, and I believe that more development in the areas of assessors and mentors will allow the whole area of competency to develop further.

There are a number of systems that attempt to classify levels of competency, some more suitable and adaptable than others. I like the 7 levels and definitions developed by Hubert and Hubert;

1. Novice: Rule based behavior, strongly limited and inflexible
2. Experienced Beginner: Incorporates aspects of the situation
3. Practitioner: Acting consciously from long term goals and plans
4. Knowledgeable practitioner: Sees the situation as a whole and acts from personal conviction
5. Expert: Has an intuitive understanding of the situation and zooms in on the central aspects
6. Virtuoso: Has a higher degree of competence, advances the standards and has an easy and creative way of doing things
7. Maestro: Changes the history in a field by inventing and introducing radical innovations

CONVERGENCE

Each adaptation of competency has its purpose, advantages and disadvantages, and their use and improvement over the years has let to some dramatic improvements in their own right. This is set to continue, especially in Occupational Competency.

I believe there are three main areas of convergence between the adaptations and in particular;

1. Use of soft skills and EQ
2. Management and Occupational
3. Organisational Alignment



Soft Skills – The growing interest, research and application of a broader range of soft skills is improving and enhancing competency in all its forms. Soft skills are often linked to EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient) which refers to skills or traits such as empathy, social awareness, etiquette, friendliness, intuition etc.. Some soft skills have a greater relevance in certain applications and positions and to date have had greater application and relevance in Management Competency. We are going to see a greater range of soft skills applied to more and more areas, including those largely procedural and technical. Most positions and jobs rely on some interaction with colleagues, clients, superiors and subordinates, and it is in these interactions that soft skills have some footing and can provide substantial benefits. We will also see specifically developed soft skill competencies to address particular organisational requirements in areas such as negotiations, leadership, mentoring, crisis management, disaster recovery to name a few. There will also be cross cultural competencies that will help bridge gaps and differences between cultures. There has been considerable work done in EQ analysis and testing although this is mainly used for Management Competency work. A more adaptable set of tools in this area needs to be developed to cover this area more practically.


Management and Occupational

Traditionally at very different ends of the competency spectrum, Management Competency tends to be behavioural based and Occupational Competency task analysis based. These are very broad classifications and mainly apply to the respective areas in their purest sense. Some aspects of each have the potential to greatly enhance the other. The convergence of these areas can be used to add soft skills to Occupational Competency, create unique organisational skill sets and identify the most suitable technical managers of the future. We will see these areas converge to create game changing senior personnel, managers and leaders that are ideally adapted to a specific organisation for example. The Behavioural Event Interview which was the foundation of the American Management Competency movement could be adapted to cover more technical and hard skills.


Organisational Alignment

Organisational Competency is unique in the main adaptations of modern competency. Organisational Competency is a unique set of characteristics that define the key skills of an organisation. It sounds very simple but has great depth and impact. Once Organisational Competency is understood it can be a very powerful strategic tool. The convergence here is that Organisational Competencies can be aligned with Management and Occupational Competencies to ensure that an organisation functions from its core in a competent manner. A simple example is that one of a mining house’s Organisational Competencies may be geophysical interpretation. This one of that company’s key skills, and can be a strength or a weakness. Once this is understood, its Management and Vocational Competencies can be aligned to support, enhance or even change this. There is going to be a tremendous amount of work done in this space as companies consolidate and focus on their core skills and capabilities. A workforce that has been trained and developed to support this can lead and excel in its selected field and Organisational Competency.


COMPETENCY 2020

Competency will be everywhere. Some universities are offering competency based degrees and assessments, most occupations have competency frameworks, the world’s G10 counties have already or are in the process of implementing competency based educational frameworks.

Competency will be an integral part of many organisations, occupations, professions and public and private education. I believe that at least 40% of education and training will be competency based. It will impact some areas more than others.

In safety critical applications, and the people that work within them, competency will provide a new level of surety and confidence to protect the public, infrastructure and assets. Individuals, teams groups and functions will have an increasing level of depth and discipline in how they interact, manage, modify and maintain systems and processes that provide this.

In some organisations, competency will develop into a strategic advantage and provide the ability to recruit, develop and retain the best human talent that is most suited to its needs, values and direction. It will provide an easy way of indentifying skills between job roles and the ability to easily map employee’s movement and progression between them.

In some professions, competency will provide a clearer path for development, interchangeability and progression and a support and assessment structure that will mentor and guide talent of all skill levels and experience.


Three Roadblocks

In the development of organisations and the talent they require to function and prosper into the future, there have been three main limiting factors that have prevented competency becoming a foundation stone of development and learning.

Firstly, there has been a tremendous amount of confusion as to the variation, application and suitability of competency, and I hope that these notes may start a new movement heading in the right direction.

Secondly, especially in respect to Management and Vocational Competency, there has been a failure to engage organisational human relations (HR) and the professionals responsible for this. HR is normally the gatekeeper to all human development and training in an organisation and the professions and occupations that have made good inroads into competency to date have not equipped organisational HR in identifying, assessing and managing competency and competency frameworks and integrating internal and external systems.

Thirdly, there is a serious shortage and qualified level of mentors and assessors. A fundamental tenet of competency is the ability to validate skills, and this needs to be done by more experienced and more competent people.
Both assessors and mentors need to work at a new level which recognises their position and achievement, and the importance of instructing and nurturing the people who are interested in learning and developing. In this age of baby boomers, there is no shortage of assessor and mentor talent out there who could very adequately fulfil both functions, we just have not found a way of engaging them properly and qualifying them.

I am setting out to move these roadblocks and provide some simple road signs to guide the way.