Knowledge sharing as an art and a science has come a long way in many organizations; however, I observe that the bridges to competency development and deployment processes remain under-exploited. As a management consultant on engagement teams, I was consistently struck by several things including:
- How talented many of my colleagues were/are - they did things I would never have known they could do had I not the opportunity to see them in action. These were not necessarily capabilities they had described on their resumes or that had been tracked in the scope of a particular project or effort, but nonetheless made a real difference in achieving results.
- That said, opportunities may be missed when these "under the radar" competencies and efforts go undiscovered. Robust project debrief sessions are often conducted by only the most diligent project leaders and only as time permits. Ownership for capturing, sharing, and codifying what is discovered may be ambiguous. Some efforts not specifically chartered or readily apparent may even (gasp) go unbilled.
Effectively facilitated debrief sessions and supporting protocols can yield a number of compelling benefits.
- There can be a tendency to focus exclusively upon outcomes without drilling down to the behavioral level (i.e. what did people actually and specifically do?) as may be strategic in understanding both desirable and undesirable outcomes. Replicating desirable outcomes and avoiding recurrence of undesirable outcomes can prove challenging, if not futile, without such understanding. Results are of course the ultimate and most important endgame.
Understanding the full range of competencies that really "get to" results can yield a veritable treasure trove.
Of course there is nothing quite like asking employees about what they know how to do and what they want to do. Well designed career interest/competency inventories can provide a wealth of information while also engaging people in dialogue about their career goals and aspirations. However, these instruments can fall flat pretty quickly if not supported on the back-end by tangible and meaningful next steps. Polling employees to discover their foreign language proficiencies is one of the more targeted examples.
Not only is the thought of leaving money on the table a painful one, but these "hidden" competencies may indeed spawn new opportunities and ideas. By definition, they are capabilities an organization already possesses. Also by definition, they likely have some relevance and value if they are discoverable in the course of understanding how work/projects really "get done."
None of this is to suggest that everything that everyone does in the course of performing work warrants replication. To be sure, wheels spin, tasks go off course, and unauthorized scope creep is a dangerous pitfall. The key is discerning value and drilling down where strategic.
Benefits:
- Incremental revenue, cost reduction, and risk mitigation:
- New service line or product development ideas
- Identification of services provided but not fully appreciated or understood by leadership and/or clients - and thus potentially not recognized/rewarded and priced/billed at levels commensurate with value
- Opportunities to provide services or develop products more efficiently, with enhanced quality, and with less risk (i.e. "Best Practices")
- Opportunities to recognize and reward talent with greater precision
- Identification of "new" competencies that can be more broadly developed and leveraged (i.e. cross-pollinated and institutionalized)
- Identification of new behavioral anchors (descriptions of behavior supporting individual competency definitions) that may enhance understanding and reinforce objectives
- Opportunities to update, reframe, and prioritize existing competencies with greater clarity and resonance
Actions:
- Carefully debriefing particularly successful projects and initiatives
- Discovering what "really happened"
- Unambiguously defining ownership for capturing, codifying, and sharing what is discovered
- Drilling down to the behavioral level (i.e. what did people actually and specifically do?) in understanding outcomes:
- Linking knowledge-sharing platforms and protocols to competency definition, development, and deployment
- Asking employees about their competencies and their aspirations (i.e. well designed career interest / competency inventories)
- One of my favorite "aha" moments was the realization that behavioral interviewing techniques can be leveraged beyond candidate selection processes. For example, they can also be used to identify "hidden" competencies and in understanding customer/client satisfaction drivers. One of the most rewarding things I get to do in my work with both organizations and individuals is helping them discover and identify IMPACT competencies they may not yet fully appreciate or even realize they possess.
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