Categorization is a fundamental cognitive ability - something that is critical in almost any human thought. Deeply rooted in philosophy, it is present in nearly every human activity. We love to organize things, sort them and apply labels to every box. How are we going to categorize skills?

The past months have put a lot of stress on our organizations, challenging us at first to show resilience and increasingly to adapt. At the same time, cost controls are pushing us to be more efficient. How can we manage the tensions between these, what do these imply for skill and competency management?

In a stressful time, one of the most important critical skills is play! Play is also important to many other things, from learning and innovation to team building and bonding. Let’s use this time of social isolation to build some play into our lives. Play can be both a foundational skill and a social skill.

Let's not write off skills in the same way as we often accept without reflection "planned obsolescence" of almost everything that surrounds us.

Part of a series on critical skills. Reflection is important to skills, from critical thinking to learning and design. It is critical to double-loop learning.

Critical thinking is a foundational skill, one of which is software engineering. What do we mean when we say 'critical thinking'? How can we develop this skill?

Pattern recognition is one of the most important foundational skills but also one of the most difficult to come to grips with.

Social skills become foundational skills in the operating room setting. A calm and reassured patient helps people apply their technical skills.

Empathy is an important part of everything from design thinking, to leadership, to mentoring and sales. Is it a skill or a trait? Can it be developed?

Foundational skills are the skills used to build other skills, like learning and critical thinking.

Who should be responsible for reskilling? The Individual, The Company or Society. The answer is all of the above. Reskilling can't happen in a vacuum

Your most important skills are those that you haven't yet developed. In 3 years half your core skills & virtually all your differentiating skills will be new.

Can your firm answer critical questions about skills? This is mission-critical for professional services firms.