Learning in the Islands

I have been thinking about just how much I learned in graduate school. Lots! Not very much in the ways I thought I would though. I thought I'd develop "skills." Skills have become less important than "competencies." Competencies are more complex and less likely to be automated.

Competencies are things like "being able to be likable." Skills are things like "understands time value of money." They overlap of course, but graduate school has become about building competencies rather than skills. Skill needs change. There just aren't that many skills that matter...even for technical professions.

What matters is knowing how to innovate, how to cope, how to write, how to diffuse anger. These competencies are difficult to build and more enduring than knowledge as a technology. Knowledge is more important than technology. Technology is only advantageous if it is used well. That takes competency...not skill. All this is one reason why sports are changing. It used to be about getting really good skills. No one cares about robots. In fact most despise robot-like players--boring perfectionists. Let's face it, Tiger Woods just isn't that likable. He's the Hillary Clinton of sports...maybe the Mitt Romney even more. What a robot. But not in a good Lego Mindstorms sort of way.

But show us someone who overcomes flaws, troubles, horrific challenges...and you get fans...you get Hokie nations...Red Sox fans...NY Giants fans. Skill? It will always play. But if you want to grow strong children, focus on competencies...resilience, empathic listening, anger management, fear management, movement growing, technology reinvention and redeployment. Everything is moving to version 2.0. Change is more than in the air.