Core Concepts: KSA (Knowledge Skill Abilities)
By Gregory Ronczewski, Director of Product Design at Ibbaka. See his skill profile.
Definition: KSA (Knowledge Skills Attributes)
Knowledge, Skills and Attributes are the foundation of any competency. At least Knowledge and Skills are, there is some disagreement as to what the ‘A’ stands for. Some say that A is for Abilities, others that it is for Attitude and other Attributes.
At Ibbaka we prefer to use Attributes as it is the most general term.
Regardless of how you look at KSA, it is a combination of variables contributing to the successful performance in a role. Knowledge, Skills, Abilities or Attributes are very different dimensions of a potential candidate.
Knowledge is all about understanding concepts. It focuses on theory, not practice. A candidate may have a high level of understanding concepts acquired from books, or formal education, without the actual experience of applying it. It offers, however, an excellent foundation to build on.
Skills are the capabilities developed during training or work when an individual can practice and apply the theoretical knowledge in the work environment. Therefore, skills can be measured in terms of expertise, precisely why we have our five-level scale on Ibbaka Talent.
Attributes are those other things that determine if the knowledge and skills are put to work to fulfill a role or achieve goals. This can be Attitudes, we have all seen athletes with all the skills needed who for some reason are not able to execute at game time. There can be many other reasons for this as well though, and it is too simple to reduce everything to attitude.
"Skills determine if you can do something, whereas talents reveal something more important: how well and how often you do it."
This quote comes from Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton's book Now, Discover Your Strength. I wrote a post outlining their approach that you can find here. Clifton’s use of talent here is close to the concept of Attributes.
There is some criticism over the application of KSA in the job application or team building process. They can be trailing metrics that look at a person’s past and that do not take into account their potential to build learn knowledge and learn new skills.
What are your thoughts on how KDAs contribute to success in a role?
Core Concepts: Skill Management and Competency Modelling
KSA (Knowledge, Skills, Attributes) (this post)
Competency Framework and Competency Model
Coming soon …
Skill Assessment
Core Concepts: Pricing and Customer Value Management
Coming soon …
Value Metric
Value Driver
Economic Value Driver
Emotional Value Driver
Community Value Driver
Value Model
Pricing Model
Connecting Value and Pricing Models
Pricing Design
Package Design
Price Elasticity of Demand
Cross Price Elasticity
Interactions of Cross Price Elasticity and Price Elasticity of Demand
Value Based Market Segmentation
Value Path
Lifetime Value of a Customer (LTV)
Value to Customer (V2C)
Value Ratio
Economic Value Estimation (EVE)
Willingness to Pay (WTP)
Pocket Price Waterfall
Customer Value Journey
Customer Value Management
