"Capability": my One Word for governing my life in 2021

This will be the 5th year I have adopted One Word for governing my life for the year instead of the more common goals or new year's resolutions etc that people tend to set themselves.

My previous One Words were:-

1. Focus (2017)

2. Discipline (2018)

3. Apply (2019)

4. Mojo (2020)

Each of these words are still things that I could and should improve further on. I take this as a good sign that my words have been well-chosen and not as a bad sign that I have not "arrived" or nailed those words.

"Capability" as a word for me for 2021 emerged when I was reading Liz Ryan's "Reinvention Roadmap: Break The Rules To Get The Job You Want & Career You Deserve" in Q3/4 2018. I continue to go back to the book for the exercises and to see the lists of my capabilities that I produced back then in response to a number of different but overlapping exercise questions from Liz.

In February 2020, I did a variant of the Working Out Loud circle exercise "50 Facts About Me" titled "50 Facts About Me - My Capabilities (as at 16 February 2020)" which was a merger of a number of lists I compiled when originally reading the Liz Ryan book. This was the result of a single pass of consolidating those lists. As it happened, I got to a list of 64 and I decided not to rationalise the list down to 50.

The only other word I spent any time considering was "absorb". The word means "take in and understand fully (information, ideas, or experience)". This is what I seek to do with all the content of any media type that I consume. This would be a great word to have but I decided to explore "capability" some more.

A clincher was finding the following presentation "What’s the difference between competencies and capabilities?" on YouTube via a search for "capability" in which Heather Whiteman (LinkedIn, Twitter) discusses the meanings of "capability" and related words:-

1. skill: the ability to do something well; expertise

2. knowledge: facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject

3. abilities: possession of the means or skill to do something

4. expertise: expert skill or knowledge in a particular field

5. competencies: the ability to do something successfully or efficiently

6. capabilities: the power or ability to do something; the extent of someone's or something's ability.

She showed how the definitions were related in this slide:

See her  full video:

What I intend to do this year for "capability" is:-

1. List out all capabilities that I have or want to develop this year in any of my life roles. Two sets of competency profiles from a former employer of mine from 20 years ago still stand the test of time (amazingly so!). There was a set that applied to the whole organisation and a set that was for the IT teams. Earlier this month I used a list of competencies from "Making Yourself Indispensable" (a Harvard Business Review article).

   My life roles include:-

   1. Project Manager

   2. Business Consultant

   3. Customer Service Manager

   4. Account Manager

   5. Coach

   6. Working Out Loud Circle Facilitator

   7. Book Group Host and Facilitator

   8. Learning Group Facilitator

   9. Learner

   10. Church Leader

   11. Disciple of Jesus

   12. Small Group Facilitator

   13. Large Group Facilitator

   14. Event Speaker

   15. Event Designer

   16. Community Manager, Facilitator, Builder

   17. Content Creator

   18. Content Consumer

   19. Content Curator

   20. Content Sharer

   21. Husband

   22. Father

   23. Collaborator

   24. Life Designer

   25. Film Club Host and Facilitator
       ... and on it goes
       

2. Define proficiency levels that could apply to anyone in any organisation and wider for each capability. My first thoughts of definitions are as follows:-

   1. Level 0 – None - No Practical Proficiency: would struggle to say anything about the subject.

   2. Level 1 – Theoretical - Elementary Proficiency: some limited understanding of the subject with minimal practical skill or knowledge of the subject.

   3. Level 2 – Basic - Limited Working Proficiency: able to apply the subject in a basic practical way with some supervision.

   4. Level 3 – Working Knowledge - Minimum Professional Proficiency: able to undertake tasks in the subject area independently of others.

   5. Level 4 – Proficient - Full Professional Proficiency: capable of working well in the subject area and developing others.

   6. Level 5 – Advanced/Expert - Native or Bilingual Proficiency: working at an advanced level in all aspects of the subject area, developing best practice

3. Assess myself for each capability listed from 1 above using the proficiency levels in 2 above for my current and target  proficiency.

4. Prioritise my capability development for those capabilities that I want to develop most for short- to medium-term reasons.

5. Do that development work and monitor improvements over the year.

6. I will continue my book reading and listening this year. My Year of Reading 2021 book lists are probably revealing of what I am focusing on this year when I curated the lists in December 2020.

7. When I am asked why I am doing what I am doing at any point in time, I want to be able to explain to others how that actvity links back to my own personal capability profile in terms of what capability I am using, learning or developing etc.

 

What is your take on capability development?

What is your practice?

What is your "Life's Work" (per Robert Greene's "Mastery"?)

In what do you want to be "So Good They Can't Ignore You ...."? (per Cal Newport's "So Good They Can't Ignore You, Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love")

Let's go and slay some more dragons (per Liz Ryan's "Reinvention Roadmap: Break the Rules to Get the Job You Want and Career You Deserve".

Let's go do amazing work per Bill Burnett and Dave Evans' definition in "Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life":

"By “work” we mean your participation in the great ongoing human adventure on the planet. You may or may not be getting paid for it, but this is the stuff you “do.” Assuming you’re not financially independent, you usually are getting paid for at least a portion of your “work.” Don’t for a minute reduce work only to that which you get paid for. Most people have more than one form of work at a time."