March 8, 2016 at 7:28 am
Gary Varga (1/26/2016)
Data can capture the hard skills but not so much the soft skills e.g how does one describe communication skills?
If data can't capture the soft skills it's clear that those skills can't be measured (not just can't me measured precisely, but can't be measured at all). I think it's pretty easy to get a rough idea of how well someone communicates, so I can have data about that; there's an error band, just as there is for any physical measurement of speed or length or weight.
However, competence at communication isn't really something one wants to measure on its own. A person who intends to make no real effort to contribute to achieving the team's objectives nor to assist any team member in any way may communicate everything they want to communicate very clearly - perhaps they have excellent communication skills. Despite those skills, I don't want them anywhere near a team I am part of, because nothing they communicate is likely to be useful, in fact it's likely to be harmful.
When people talking about team dynamics start talking "communication skills" before looking at desire to be a productive and effective team member they have lost sight of what working as a team is all about. That desire to contribute is something which is very hard to capture in data, to measure, and it is far more important than any soft skill - but some people manage to make a useful stab at detecting it and maybe even very roughly measuring it when interviewing.
Tom
March 8, 2016 at 7:34 am
TomThomson (3/8/2016)
...That desire to contribute is something which is very hard to capture in data, to measure, and it is far more important than any soft skill - but some people manage to make a useful stab at detecting it and maybe even very roughly measuring it when interviewing.
Agreed. Although I lean more to believing in detection of it being more realistic than any meaningful measure of it.
You are not going to ask how big the letter of the law should be. Are you?
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
March 8, 2016 at 8:26 am
Gary Varga (3/8/2016)
TomThomson (3/8/2016)
...That desire to contribute is something which is very hard to capture in data, to measure, and it is far more important than any soft skill - but some people manage to make a useful stab at detecting it and maybe even very roughly measuring it when interviewing.Agreed. Although I lean more to believing in detection of it being more realistic than any meaningful measure of it.
You are not going to ask how big the letter of the law should be. Are you?
I share your leaning - the measure was at best very rough and even very rough measure was only a "maybe".
I have a general feeling about law that it should aim at preventing (and where that isn't possible, punishing, maybe) harm from being done. But I haven't a clue how to go about doing that (although I could probably make a better job of it than our legislators, who are nearly all, maybe absolutely all, more interested in politics and their personal advantage than in anything else) so I will neither ask about nor comment on how big the letter should be.
Tom
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