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Vesa Purho
Development Manager, Nokia
When discussing competencies required in a certain job now
and in the future, you may find it useful to divide the
competencies into two categories: strategic and operational. The
methods used to develop the different types of
competencies in your group will differ.
Operational competencies are needed to perform the tasks
required by the job. They can be thought of as skill-based
competencies. An operational competence can be, for example,
using Adobe FrameMaker, calculating metrics, translation,
and so on. Usually, the need for operational competencies
changes as the operating environment changes. For example,
if you are moving to authoring in XML, the competence of
using Adobe FrameMaker does not help much.
Strategic competencies, on the other hand, could be called
knowledge-based competencies. They are derived from the
vision and strategy of the company and are usually quite
general and can be applied in many situations. Examples of
strategic competencies include project management,
analytical thinking, and the ability to learn new things.
The need for these competencies does not change often unless
the strategic direction of a company changes.
Both types of competencies are needed and neither is more
valuable than the other. Operational competencies help you
work as efficiently as possible. On the other hand,
strategic competencies are essential to help you plan for
the future and change the way of operating. Determining
whether a competence is strategic or operational is not
always easy. My suggestion is that if you are in doubt, the
competence is probably strategic.
When thinking about what kind of competencies you and your
team need, it helps to think about the different types of
competencies and their relevance in what you do. If you
manage a group, you can make a competence map showing the
competencies needed in your group, based on the company's
strategy and the team's mission, and chart the current
situation as the sum of the competencies of the individual
team members. The competence map helps you see if you have
the competencies you need in the number that you think you
need, and it helps you plan for competence development
actions.
The development of operational competencies is usually
straightforward. You may participate in training to get the
basics and then learn the rest on the job. You may also
learn by just doing the work. Strategic competencies are
more difficult to develop. Some are easier, like project
management, because you can attend training, but it requires
a lot of experience and hopefully a good coach or mentor to
get really good at the competence. Some strategic
competencies are really hard to develop. For example, if you
are not an analytical thinker by nature, learning to think
analytically is difficult. So, sometimes the method for
developing a competence in a group is to add a new member to
the group.
This article is the personal opinion of the author and does
not necessarily reflect the opinion or practice of Nokia.
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