The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank, or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this presentation and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this presentation do not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

A Competency-Based Approach to Managing

Olivier Serrat2014

Contents

Competence is a specific

range of

knowledge, skills, or behaviors

utilized to improv

e performance and

sustainable competitive advantage

derives from strenuous

efforts to identify,

cultivate, and

exploit an organization's core competencies

. ADB's Knowle

dge Solutio

ns series aims to

build competencies in:

Strategy Development

Management Techniques

Collaboration Mechanisms

Knowledge Sharing and Learning

Knowledge Capture and Storage

Contents• Behavior and Change• Emergence and Scenario Thinking• Institutional Capacity and Participation

• Knowledge Assets• Marketing• Organizational Learning• Partnerships and Networks of PracticeStrategy Development

• Branding and Value• Complexity and Lateral Thinking• Linear Thinking• Organizational Change• Talent ManagementManagement Techniques

Contents• Collaborative Tools

• Communities of Practice and Learning Alliances

• Leadership• Social Innovations

• Teamwork

Collaboration Mechanisms

• Creativity, Innovation, and Learning

• Learning and Development

• Learning Lessons• DisseminationKnowledge Sharing and Learning

• Knowledge Harvesting

• Reporting• Technology PlatformsKnowledge

Capture and Storage

Behavior and Change• Culture Theory

How can a strategy focus on group

relationships with appreciation of their distinctive ideas, beliefs,

values, and knowledge?

• The Most Significant Change Technique

How can it utilize stories of

significant change to monitor and

evaluate performance?

• Outcome Mapping

How might it shift the focus from

changes in state to changes in behaviors,

relationships, actions, and activities?

• Political Economy Analysis for Development Effectiveness

Why should it embrace the complex political nature of decision making to investigate how

power and authority affect economic choices in a society?

• The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach

How could you anchor it in

understanding of livelihoods and

appreciation of the factors that constrain or

enhance these as well as their relationships?

Emergence and Scenario Thinking

• Future Search Conferencing

How might futurizing enable

diverse and potentially

conflicting groups find common ground for constructive

action?• Design Thinking

Is your strategy the outcome of a human-centered, prototype-driven process for the

exploration of new ideas?

• From Strategy to Practice

Does it maintain a balance between strategizing and learning modes of

thinking? • Past Visions of Rural Asia's Future

How can one formulate strategic efforts to effect change when they are constantly challenged by

emerging forces?• The Premortem Technique

Working backward, does it integrate alternatives that emerge from the perspective of future failure? • Reading the Future

How emergent is it? Does it consider other scenarios?

• Theories of Change

How can one navigate the complexity of

social change to intended results?

Institutional Capacityand Participation

•Building Institutional Capacity for Development

How does a strategy promote participation at requisite levels?

• On Resilient Organizations

How might investments in leadership and

culture, networks, and change

readiness build resilience to

survive and thrive in turbulent

times?

Knowledge Assets

• Auditing Knowledge

Is your strategy for knowledge

management enriched by regular

knowledge audits?

•Enhancing Knowledge Management Strategies

Does its practice integrate the need to systematically review, evaluate,

prioritize, sequence, manage, redirect, and if necessary even cancel strategic initiatives?

• Linking Research to Practice

Is your approach to dissemination underpinned by

policy, strategy, planning, and

tactics? How can your knowledge products be made available in a

flexible range of formats in

recognition of the varied needs of

consumers?

• A Primer on Intellectual Capital

How might you realize your

organization's true value?

Marketing

• The Future of Social Marketing

How does a strategy apply a custom blend of the four Ps and other marketing techniques to transform

communications with stakeholders

and improve performance?

• Marketing in the Public Sector

How might it draw on marketing principles to

effect changes in the behavior of individuals or

groups?

Organizational Learning

• Building a Learning Organization

How can a strategy support and energize

organization, people, knowledge, and technology for

learning?•Learning Lessons with Knowledge Audits

How might it integrate

evaluation results to support policy,

strategy, and operational changes?

• Overcoming Roadblocks to Learning

How could it distinguish

roadblocks to make them part of the

solution instead of part of the problem?

•Seeking Feedback on Learning for Change

How would you gauge perceptions of competencies to learn for change?

Partnershipsand Networks of

Practice• Creating and Running Partnerships

Does your strategy leverage

partnerships and recognize their

drivers of success and failure?

• Social Network Analysis

How might it make out social networks and

analyze the actors and the

relationships between them?

Branding and Value

• Managing Corporate Reputation

Why, in knowledge-based economies, should high-performance

organizations reconceptualize

notions of corporate reputation?

•New-Age Branding and the Public Sector

How might we embrace branding

to drive organizational behavior and

behavioral change?

•Value Cycles for Development Outcomes

Do value cycles maximize the potential of

knowledge services and knowledge

solutions through delivery

platforms?

Complexity and Lateral Thinking

• The Five Whys Technique

How might we investigate deeply the cause-and-

effect relationships underlying problems? • On Decision Making

If decision making is a stream of inquiry, not an event. how might one move toward decision-driven organizations? • The Reframing Matrix

Do you enable different

perspectives to be generated and applied in management processes? • The SCAMPER Technique

How might one brainstorm to

resolve a problem, meet an

opportunity, or turn a tired idea into something new and different?

•Seeding Knowledge Solutions Before, During, and After

By what effective questioning might you reap insights into strategy development, management techniques,

collaboration mechanisms,

knowledge sharing and learning, and knowledge capture

and storage?

• Understanding Complexity

Why should management

practices encompass sense and decision making in multiple

contexts?

Linear Thinking

•Crafting a Knowledge Management Results Framework

How can we manage for results with a coherent framework

for strategic planning,

management, and communications?

• Focusing on Project Metrics

How does one focus on time, cost, human resources,

scope, quality, and actions as common parameters of

project performance? •Output Accomplishment and the Desi

gn and Monitoring Framework

Do you make use of logic models for

objectives-oriented planning that

structures the main elements in a

project, highlighting

linkages between intended inputs,

planned activities, and expected results?

•The Perils of Performance Measurement

What are some pernicious effects of performance

measurement and how might one improve the state of the

art?

Organizational Change• Business Model Innovation

What are business models and how

might they enable organizations to capture, create, and deliver value

to meet explicit or latent needs?

• Engaging Staff in the Workplace

In what ways do organizations

benefit from staff engagement and how

might that be driven? • Fast and Effective Change Manageme

nt

How do organizations

overcome resistance to change and secure as much discretionary

effort as possible? • Forestalling Change Fatigue

If transformation change rarely succeeds, what

rationale is there for bottom-up approaches? • Innovation in the Public Sector

How might the public sector innovate to be competent in the present and ready for the future? • Knowledge as Culture

How might knowledge management

initiatives impact an organization's social reality to drive change?

Organizational Change•Managing Knowledge in Project Environments

If a project exists only for its

duration, how might project-based organizations reconcile the

project-centric nature of their work to also

promote organizational

learning?

• Moral Courage in Organizations

What is moral courage and why is

it so often constrained in organizations?

• Notions of Knowledge Management

How do we get the right knowledge to the right people at the right time, and help them (with incentives) to apply it in ways that strive to

improve organizational performance?

•Picking Investments in Knowledge Management

How might you prioritize

investments in knowledge management?

• A Primer on Corporate Governance

Why do organizations need

direction and control and based on what principles and practices might boards of directors

better provide that?

Organizational Change• A Primer on Organizational Culture

What are the components of organizational

culture and what is the role of

organizational learning for

change? • A Primer on Organizational Learning

How do organizations

learn?

• The Roots of an Emerging Discipline

How do new knowledge management

paradigms compare with the old, and

what new structures and managerial

attitudes do they require?

• Sparking Innovations in ManagementWhy should we drive

management innovation?

• The Travails of MicromanagementWhy is

micromanagement mismanagement?

Talent Management

• Conducting Effective Meetings

Do you manage meetings before,

during, and after, with appreciation of their different kinds, to make them productive and fun?

• Growing Managers, Not Bosses

Should one spend more time,

integrity, and brainpower on

selecting managers than on anything

else?• Leading Top Talent in the Workplace

Is your organization attractive to

people who already know how valuable

they are?• Managing Knowledge Workers

Why should you empower knowledge

workers to make the most of their

deepest skills and perform best?

Talent Management

• Managing by Walking Around

How does one manage by walking

around to emphasize the importance of interpersonal contact, open

appreciation, and recognition and

build civility and performance in the

workplace? • A Primer on Talent Management

How can one give talent strategic and holistic

attention to make it happen?

•Understanding and Developing Emotional Intelligence

Do you have the ability, capacity, skill, or self-perceived ability

to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of yourself, of

others, and of groups?

Collaborative Tools

• Collaborating with Wikis

How do you harness the power of collaborative

minds to innovate faster, cocreate, and cut costs?

• Drawing Mind Maps

How does one represent, link,

and arrange concepts, themes, or tasks under a central topic?

• Wearing Six Thinking Hats

How can we actualize the

thinking potential of teams?

Communities of Practiceand Learning Alliances

• Building Communities of Practice

How do you build a community of like-minded, interacting people to ensure more effective creation and sharing of

knowledge in a domain? •Enriching Knowledge Management Coo

rdination

Through what collaboration

mechanisms can one decentralize the span of knowledge coordination?

•Improving Sector and Thematic Reporting

How can communities of practice report

better?

• Learning in Strategic Alliances

Why should strategic alliances

manage the partnership, not

just the agreement, for collaborative

advantage?

Communities of Practiceand Learning Alliances

• On Networked Organizations

Why are hierarchy, market, and

network forms of organization not

mutually exclusive?

• A Primer on Social Neuroscience

How does social neuroscience foster more

comprehensive theories of the mechanisms that underlie human

behavior?

• Surveying Communities of Practice

How might one design and analyze

a survey of communities of

practice?

Leadership

• Building Trust in the Workplace

How should we earn, develop, and retain trust for superior

results?

• Distributing Leadership

How can one distribute

leadership if it is an outcome, not an input to business processes and performance?

• Exercising Servant Leadership

Why would you support people who choose to serve first, and then lead, as a way of expanding service to individuals and organizations? • Leading in the Workplace

What is the new context for

leadership in the public sector?

Social Innovations

• Appreciative Inquiry

By what process can one unearth what works to facilitate

positive change in organizations?

•Fighting Corruption with ICT: Strengthening Civil Society’s Role

How might development agencies

strengthen civil society-led, ICT -

driven anticorruption initiatives?

• Sparking Social Innovations

How can you generate good

ideas that meet pressing unmet

needs and improve people's lives to foster smart, sustainable

globalization?

Teamwork• Action Learning

How do you enable small groups to

work regularly and collectively on

complicated problems, take

action, and learn as individuals and as a team while

doing so?• Bridging Organizational Silos

How might one bridge silos to promote effective cross-functional

teams?• Conflict in Organizations

What are the roots of organizational conflict and how might complexity thinking help

capitalize on its functions and dysfunctions? • Delegating in the Workplace

Why, in organizations, is

it better to understand

delegation as a web of tacit governance

arrangements? • Informal Authority in the Workplace

How can reciprocity intensify mutual influence in

organizations?

Teamwork

• Managing Virtual Teams

How can we organize and coordinate with

effect a group whose members are not in the same location or time zone, and may not even work for the same organization? • On Organizational Configurations

What configuration does your

organization have and what does that tell you? What might you do to

enhance the strengths and minimize the

weaknesses of its structure?

• A Primer on Corporate Values

What role can corporate values play in guiding behavior and

decision-making?

• Working in TeamsHow does one develop a

successful team?

Creativity, Innovation,and Learning

• Building Networks of Practice

What are the forms and functions of

networks of practice and how do you monitor and

evaluate performance?

•Dimensions of the Learning Organization

How do you harness, individually or in association, useful models of learning

and change to reflect on the dimensions of a

learning organization? • Drawing Learning Charters

How can an organization demonstrate

commitment to learning, against

which provision and practice can be

tested and serve as a waymark with which to guide, monitor, and

evaluate progress?

•Harnessing Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace

What are the stimulants and obstacles to

creativity and innovation that drive or impede enterprise in organizations?

Creativity, Innovation,and Learning

• Learning in Conferences

How might event planners shine a light on learning

outcomes?

• On Internal Knowledge Markets

Why is intrinsic motivation

necessary to drive internal knowledge

markets?• On Knowledge Behaviors

Why must motive, means, and

opportunity be aligned to invest

resources productively across

the knowledge-sharing landscape? • Social Media and the Public Sector

How can the public sector use Web 2.0 applications to forge, build, and

deepen relationships?

• Toward a Library Renaissance

Challenged by the internet, how might libraries worldwide

reconsider the products and services they

offer?

Learning and Development

• Coaching and Mentoring

How can we coach and mentor to

inspire and empower employees, build

commitment, increase

productivity, grow talent, and promote

success? • E-Learning and the Workplace

Can better understanding of organizational environments and design principles improve e-learning interventions?

•Learning and Development for Management

What are the five functions of

managers toward which learning and development can be extended to improve their insights, attitudes, and

skills? • Learning in a Flash

How can we provide a social context to motivate learners

and improve cognition and

recall?

Learning Lessons• Asking Effective Questions

How do you know what question to

ask when?

• Conducting After-Action Reviews and

Retrospects

When a critical milestone has been reached, why should

we discuss successes and

failures in an open and honest fashion? • Conducting Successful Retreats

How does one step back from day-to-day activities to think about the

future?• Conducting Peer Assists

How can individuals come together to

share their experiences, insights, and

knowledge on an identified challenge or problem?

• Embracing FailureIs failure a way to an opportunity?

Learning Lessons

•Identifying and Sharing Good Practices

How can one suggest that a process or methodology that has been shown to

be effective in one part of an

organization and might be effective in another too? • Learning from Evaluation

How might evaluation serve as a foundation block

in learning organizations?

• Learning Histories

How might one surface the thinking,

experiments, and arguments of actors

who engaged in organizational

change? • Storytelling

What is the potential of stories or

narratives as a communication tool to value, share, and capitalize on the knowledge of individuals?

Dissemination•Communications for Development Outcomes

How can strategic communications explain activity and connect to purpose in more

instrumental ways? • Conducting Effective Presentations

How can an ordinary presentation become

a lively and engaging event?

• Disseminating Knowledge Products

By what interactive process does one

communicate knowledge to target audiences to lead

to change? • Enriching Policy with Research

How can we enrich the definition,

design, and implementation of policy research?

• Posting Research Online

How do you employ the internet to

disseminate research findings?

• Using Plain English

How do we save time in writing, make

writing far easier, and improve

understanding?

Knowledge Harvesting• Conducting Exit Interviews

How do you garner feedback on why

employees leave, what they liked about

their job, and where the organization

needs improvement?• The Critical Incident Technique

How can the study of critical incidents help solve practical

problems?

• Critical Thinking

By what process can one analyze and

evaluate thinking to improve it?

• Glossary of Knowledge Management

What, in simple terms, are the most common concepts in

knowledge management?

• Harvesting Knowledge

How do you draw out and package tacit knowledge to help

others adapt, personalize, and apply it; build organizational capacity; and

preserve institutional memory?

Knowledge Harvesting

• On Second Thought

Why might groups and organizations

benefit from social reminiscing?

• Showcasing Knowledge

Why should one cut information overload and

showcase knowledge?

• Staff Profile Pages

How do we build dynamic, adaptive

electronic directories that store information

about the knowledge, skills, experience, and interests of

people?• Taxonomies for Development

How might taxonomy work become

strategic work?

Reporting

•Assessing the Effectiveness of Assistance in Capacity Development

How can one garner feedback from

executing agencies on the

effectiveness of assistance in

capacity development?

• Monthly Progress Notes

By what simple feedback

mechanisms might you promote

learning before, during, and after

to document accomplishments as

well as bottlenecks?

Technology Platforms

• Writing Weblogs

How can groups discuss

electronically areas of interest

and review different

opinions and information

surrounding a topic?

Further Reading• ADB. 2008–. Knowledge Solutions. Manila. Available: www.adb.org/knowledgesolutions

• ADB. 2008–. Knowledge Solutions. Manila. Available: www.adb.org/publications/series/knowledge-solutions

• ADB. 2010. Compendium of Knowledge Solutions. Manila. Available: www.adb.org/publications/compendium-knowledge-solutions

Olivier SerratPrincipal Knowledge Management Specialist

Regional and Sustainable Development Department

Asian Development Bank

knowledge@adb.orgwww.adb.org/knowledge-managementwww.facebook.com/adbknowledgesolutionswww.scribd.com/knowledge_solutions

www.twitter.com/adbknowledge