Key skills signal strategy and differentiation

David Botta leads Ibbaka’s design research. See his skill profile here.

One often wants to compare skills. One could compare the skills of two people, two teams, the skills required for two roles and so on. Comparing companies can also give important insights into each company’s strategy and differentiation.

When comparing companies, people or roles to each other in terms of skills, you are looking for what is the same and what is different. If the companies, people or roles have a lot in common, it is hard to see how they differ. Some skills are widely held in companies; for example, “Microsoft Office”. Not only are skills like this widely held, there is a corporate expectation that the people who hold them are reasonably competent in them.

We have a standard approach where we compare three companies. The above image is a screenshot of skills that three actual companies (Aa, Bb and Cc) have in common. (Don’t try to read it; the image is only intended to show that there are a lot of them.) To see all the skills of say company Bb, in the following image you would have to turn on all of “Aa & Bb & Cc”, “(Aa & Bb) not Cc”, “(Bb & Cc) not Aa”, and “Unique to Bb”. The number of skills is daunting and hard to understand.

To sharpen the focus, it may help to look for something specific. For example, we asked ourselves what skills help a company perceive what is going on in the world and to respond intelligently. We noticed that “Data analysis” and “Strategy” show in all three companies (Aa, Bb, and Cc) as follows:

• Data analysis: 42/391 (11%), 14/172 (8%), 16/106 (15%)

• Strategy: 54/391 (14%), 25/172 (15%), 16/106 (15%)

The numbers are Number of People with Skill/Number of People in Company (Percent with Skill).

We then included only people who have at least one of these skills in our filtered view of the company comparison.

Did we learn something from this? Well, really understanding takes more than one try. For starters, perhaps all skills that include the word “strategy” should have been included in the filter. The same with “analysis”. Are there other terms that should be included in the filter? Multiple iterations are usually needed to bring skill differentiation into focus.

Even a first pass can provide insights. Both Aa and Bb have machine learning expertise while there is no mention of that in company Cc. Moreover, Aa might be puting proportionately more investment in it given the number of people with this skill.

Ibbaka has noticed that Roles can be difficult to assess against a competency model if they share too many skills. So the question arises, which skills are most important to a Role in terms of their impact on performance. Other skills could then be siphoned off into a common role that has all of the skills required for a specific discipline. For example, the role of Joiner (woodworking) might be assessed on making a perfect dovetail joint in some troublesome wood that wants to tear out or chip. A good result means that a woodworker in that Role can do almost any joint and easily learn the rest. Plus, that woodworker has expertise in a number of areas and can likely play a number of woodworking roles that require similar expertise.

Let us call these special skills “key skills”, because they unlock differentiation. In many cases, whether when comparing companies or understanding the differences between roles, it is these key skills that make the difference.

Ibbaka Posts on Competency Models and Competency Frameworks

• Key skills signal strategy and differentiation (this post)

• Competency models as learning plans

• From user experience to competency model design - Margherita Bacigalupo and EntreComp

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Jeff Griffiths on transversal and vertical skills

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: The chunkers and the slice and dicers

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Victoria Pazukha

• Two podcasts on competency model design from Vancouver

• The A in KSA is for Abilities or Attitudes or Attributes?

• Do competency frameworks need competency definitions?

• Should you have a personal competency model?

• Designing a skill competency model - the Ibbaka approach

• Design research - How do people approach the design of skill and competency models?

• Designing a blueprint for your competency model framework

• From competency model design to competency model generation

• The WEF on Building a Common Language for Skills at Work

• Aligning skill and competency models with microcredentials - a conversation between Don Presant and Kul Sharma

• Three Metaphors for Skills and Competencies

• The Skills for Career Mobility - Interview with Dennis Green

• Competencies or skills - what should you assess?

• Lessons Learned Launching and Scaling Capability Management Programs

• Designing a Competency Model for Innovation Coaches

• Talent Transformation - A Conversation with Eric Shepherd, Martin Belton and Steven Forth

• Who cares about skill and competency models

• Competency Model Definitions - the IEEE ups its game

• Simple (very simple) skill and competency models

• Individual - Team - Organizational use cases for skill and competency management

• Design decisions for developing a competency framework

• What is skill management?

• Competency models are living documents and need curation

• Some key use cases for competency model adoption

• Designing the Open Competency Model Architecture

• A third skillscape

• Building skill and competency models together

• Getting past competency model PTSD

• Co-creation of Competency Models for Customer Success and Pricing Excellence

• Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change – An Interview with Dr. Robin Cox

• Architecting the Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change Open Competency Model

• Introducing open competency models

• Integrating Skills and Competencies in the Talent Management Ecosystem

• Organizational values and competency models – survey results

• Why your job architecture needs a competency model

• Are values part of your competency model?

• How to build competency models

• A skill name is just a word, isn’t it?

• Current trends in skill and competency management

• Enabling internal mobility - a design thinking approach