Developing a skill does not always increase organizational capability
Even when someone develops a skill, the organization may retain the same constraint if the opportunity, support, or authority to apply it is missing.
Capability architecture
Articles about designing, connecting, and evolving the capabilities an organization needs.
32 articles
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Work without Jobs and the missing link between skills and work
Work without Jobs proposes looking beyond the job as a whole and brings into view a layer that skill architectures often overlook: the work that needs to be organized.
When to create a new role and when to redesign an existing one
Should the organization create a new role or redistribute the work? The answer depends on the stability, distinctiveness, and accountability of the missing contribution.
From a skills gap to a capability gap: individual development is not always what is missing
Before recommending training in response to a gap, compare four possible sources: individual proficiency, team coverage, interfaces, and the operating model.
From headcount to capability: what should change in workforce planning
Staffing decisions require knowing how many people there will be. Capability planning also requires understanding what work they can sustain, under which constraints, and with what coverage.
Dynamic Capabilities: why a collection of skills does not create organizational capability
David Teece locates strategic capability in the ability to integrate, build, and reorganize resources. His perspective explains why a skills inventory provides information about people but does not demonstrate organizational adaptation. The decisive moment comes when the environment demands change.
The org chart is not a map of the work
The org chart seems to explain how the organization functions because it sets out its formal authority. Actual work also depends on decisions, exchanges, and relationships that cross those lines.
How to validate that an architecture represents real work
Before using a skills architecture to assess people, validate it by testing its definitions against real decisions, deliverables, and situations.
Team capability is not the average of its members
How do two teams with the same average skill level end up responding in completely different ways to a critical incident?
The Skills-Powered Organization and the shift toward capabilities
The Skills-Powered Organization proposes that skills should stop being auxiliary human resources data and become the unit through which a company designs work, allocates talent, and reinvents itself. Its most important contribution also defines its greatest demand: the change affects the organization's operating system.
How to choose the first track for a skills pilot
The first track in a skills pilot should generate useful learning without sacrificing relevance. Choosing it requires separating indispensable conditions from criteria used to compare viable candidates.
A strategy without available capabilities is only an aspiration
A strategic priority may be well defined, funded, and communicated, yet remain little more than an intention if the organization cannot mobilize the capabilities it requires when and where they are needed.