Components of Competency
It’s difficult to explain where skill in a given domain comes from. Many famous athletes and musicians who have reached the top of their field are almost completely unable to identify what makes them successful - often attributing their success to nebulous things like talent or instinct. While the existence of talent is unquestionable, there must be some framework that people can use when life demands that they develop more ability in a current domain than they have now.
I’m going to use an odd competency I have - a soccer video game called FIFA - to try to understand how competency works.
Scenario Recognition
It seems a fundamental aspect of competency is to be able to correctly identify the scenario at play, even as it evolves in real time.
A mental scenario “dictionary” is necessary, aquired either from study or lived experience. Experience ultimately allows for the fastest, most accurate, and nuanced understanding of the scenario at hand.
In soccer, this is to maintain a mental map of where all the players are on the field at all times. If you are a software architect, it may be the entire set of a customer’s priorities, skillsets, resources, existing architecture, politics, etc.
Technique Dictionary
The next aspect of compentency I can identify is to posses a tool bank of techniques and the skill to pull them off reliably. If you can identify a scenario but have no power to solve it, it remains unresolved.
In soccer, this might be certain types of shots, passes, dribbles, and the skill to reliably perform them. If you are a software achitect, this might be knowing a variety of databases, object stores, caches, queues, scaling techniques, and the tradeoffs of every technology and configuration. It is probably also the social techniques to guide a conversation and frame goals in terms of the key decision maker’s priorities.
Pattern Matching
The next aspect of competency is the joining of the scenario and technique dictionaries to apply the appropriate technique to the appropriate scenario. The perfect match considers every nuance of the scenario as well as every side effect of the technique.
Expression and Empathy
The final aspect of competency is how particular expressions of it become a multiplying force. Most of us are familiar with someone who is highly competent but is also kind of a jerk. That person limits their own value by not establishing a connection with other people. If competency is expressed in a way that can be shared with others, in a way that considers other people as valuable and emotionally sensitive, then that competency becomes something that can be shared and used to influence others. In a large organization, this can have massive, wide-ranging effects, even establishing cultures.