Some while back a book written by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull called The Peter Principle: Why
Things Always Go Wrong was unleashed
on corporate readers. Our understanding of organisations will never be the
same.
Why? Because
from it we learnt that “in an organisation where promotion is based on
achievement, success, and merit, that organisation's members will eventually be
promoted beyond their level of ability”.
In a
previous posting we learnt the sad fates of Mary Mesquita and
Marco Pimentel: two very typical examples of excellent operators who, in light
of outstanding performances, had been promoted into positions which they were
not able to fill. Both incidents resulted in substantial losses to their
respective employer organisations in money, human capital and market. In each
case it was clear that both individuals were more than competent in their
technical skills.
This realisation enables us to develop the tools needed to
start the process of bringing our team
from ordinary to Wow.
We have recognised that there are a number of different
areas in which people need to become competent.
I suggest that these would be the most practical to work
with:
- Technical
- Soft skills (otherwise known as Emotional Intelligence)
- Management
- Company in house policies, processes
It also makes sense to recognise that each function in the
organisation will require people to be competent at different levels, like
this:
- Aware: I know that these things are done but I’m not sure why or how
- Basic: I carry out routine functions that involve these skills
- Operational: I am very proficient in this area: only need assistance with advanced stuff
- Expert: I carry out work at an advanced level in this field and also teach others in it
The two elements, areas of competency and levels of
complexity, can be made in to a matrix:
Technical
|
Soft Skills
|
Management
|
Company in house
|
|
Aware
|
||||
Basic
|
||||
Operational
|
||||
Expert
|
So where is this leading?
In following posts we will find out how to develop this matrix into a map of all the competencies
needed by the organisation at each level.
Having done that we will describe each function within the
organisation in terms of both the competencies required and the levels at which
they are needed for that function.
Then we show
how to use that information to find out what training each person in our
organisation actually needs – this can be quite traumatic, so please tighten
the seatbelts!
