Looking back on the last couple of years in the digital learning/L&D industry, two pretty big disruptors have been stirring things up and changing how we do things.
The first, of course, is the explosion of Generative AI and its implications on pretty much everything – from how businesses operate to how individuals get access to the information they need and to the L&D industry as a whole. Enough is being said about Gen AI out there, so I’ll spare you another post on that subject and instead focus on the second thing, which is skills and the new urgency for an enterprise to transform into a Skills Based Organisation.
So, let’s upskill on skills!
How is this different from the Competency movement of 15 years ago?
In the early decades of this century, companies were moving to Competency Based frameworks. The talk was of competencies and capabilities as organisations looked for better ways of documenting and defining who could do what in their business and whether or not someone had the skills to do a particular job or job function. Companies spent a lot of energy coming up with competency frameworks and adopting all the new lingo.
At some point all that competency fuss fizzled out and skills became the new darling. Is the conversation about skills the ‘same old thing?’, just with new labels?
Well, yes, and no. As Andy Andrews from Lexonis shared in a recent webinar, “competencies” and “skills” are essentially the same thing. A competency or skill is something you do to perform a specific task or function. The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines a competence as “possession of sufficient knowledge or skill” and a skill as “the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance.”
The big difference in where we are today with the skills conversation is that today we have MORE DATA. We can more easily tag, track, and quantify. I will invoke the AI piece here (even though I said I wouldn’t be talking about AI) – because AI helps with these activities in game-changing ways through automation of the processes needed to document and catalogue the skills within an organisation, as well as the ability to then analyse all that information.
What does it take to become a Skills Based Organisation?
If you’re interested in moving to a more skills-focused approach at your organisation, you may be taking on a huge initiative. It will depend on how far you want to take it, but it turns out that transforming a business to a Skills Based Organisation (SBO) could be a pretty big deal.
In a recent article about Delta Airlines’ transformation to an SBO, the author shares that Delta has been on this journey since 2019 and are just now rolling out this new approach at an enterprise level. That’s a five-year process. Clearly, Delta has been playing the long-game with skills.
So don’t expect this to be an overnight switch. For many organisations, this could be a multi-year process, involving a dedicated team of 5-10 people, and costing $500,000-$3 million dollars. (Yes, I used my emerging ChatGPT skills to come up with that estimate, but when I validated these numbers with humans who work in skills the answer was “yeah, that sounds about right, depending on the size or your organisation and what you’re trying to do.”)
How does thinking in terms of skills change the work of Learning Experience Designers?
So, for those of us involved in the production side of L&D who define and develop effective learning experiences, how does this skills transformation impact our work? What are we going to need to do to shift our mindset to skills?
Well, those of us who have always been focused on answering the question:
“What is it that people need to be able to DO as a result of completing this training experience?”
Keep doing that. Because you are thinking about performance and performance improvement, you’re already focusing on skills.
You may want to start talking up skills and how the programmes you’re designing will improve those skills. Or tagging your programmes with those specific skills. Find out who in your organisation owns the skills conversation and ask them to share the company’s skills taxonomy so you’re using the same language. That way, even if your company is just starting the transformation to an SBO, your content experiences will already be aligned.
More importantly, the data will start accumulating. You’ll know that Jake completed these modules on that skill and more importantly, that he achieved certification in that skill or passed a robust assessment demonstrating true skill acquisition.
How are you staying on top of the skills transformation?
So, what’s next? Do you need to upskill on skills?
The move to a skills-focused approach isn’t just a buzzword – it’s a shift in how organisations operate, develop their talent, and drive results. As L&D professionals, our role is pivotal in making this transformation a reality.
So, whether you’re just starting to explore the skills movement or are deep into the journey, the key is to stay curious, collaborate, and continuously refine your approach. After all, even in the age of AI, one thing remains clear: it’s people and their skills that drive success.
What are your thoughts on the skills transformation? Let us know how you’re tackling this challenge in your organisation. We’re all learning together.
Further reading
And if you’re looking to dig into this topic further, here are a couple of my recommendations:
- Koreen Pagano talks a lot about skills and has just finished a manuscript for a Skills book that will be coming out next year. And while you anxiously await Koreen’s book, check out her research report on Expertise as a Catalyst for Building a Skills-Based Organization, produced with the Learning Guild.
- Check out the webinar recording from the December 12, 2024 panel discussion I had with Andy Andrews and Steve Lowenthal of Lexonis and Ben Betts, formerly at Learning Pool.