When You Think Skill: Organization Thinks You
“Unless some one is working, no work gets done. And where there is no work, there is no working…the purpose of play lies in the player; the purpose of work lies within the user of end product”. Peter. F.Drucker - The management expert.
Any one that doesn’t work shouldn’t eat …… (Holy Bible)

Work has been a part of human consciousness since the beginning of creation. At different ages, different methodology of working is birth because of new challenge and it brings about innovation into human way of life. The purpose of work is to keep alive the hope and the dream.

Skill is the way through which a worker can effectively relate to the environment.
Skill is not a technique to be learned, it is the ability birthed through acquisition of knowledge and continual effective application of this knowledge.

A shoe made by hand is a product of skillfulness and a shoe made by machine is also product of skillfulness. The difference between the two paradigms is the shift from low productivity to high productivity thinking brought about by organized knowledge that meet with the challenge in market. The more clearly and reasonable the knowledge is applied, the minimal is limitation and higher production is.

Skill is the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, and aptitude to do something well; Competent excellent. [Encyclopedic unabridged dictionary of English language]

“A young man in whom was no blemish, but handsome and skillful in all wisdom and gifted in knowledge and understanding science and such ability in them to stand in the king’s palace ……” (Jewish Text)
The Economist magazine in its October 2006 reports on shortage of talented and skillful workers says “look around the business world and two things stand out; the modern economy places an enormous premium on brain power; and there is not enough to go round…No body really disputes the idea that the demand for talent intensive skill is rising. The value of “intangible” asset-everything from skilled workers to patent know-how-has ballooned from 20% of the value of companies in the S&P 500 to 70% today. The proportion of American workers doing jobs that call for complex skill has grown three times as employment in general. As other economies move in the same direction, the global demand is rising quickly.
Skill is a way of learning, assimilating and ordering experience by which worker relationship to his or her organization and environment can be improved.
A worker in the information and wisdom age, we are, is qualify to be called skillful person when he or she posses relevant knowledge and spiritual intelligence to effectively do her assignment with lower or zero supervision.
EDS, a giant technology company, has built a global skills inventory of 100,000 strong workforces. The company compared the workforce’s current skills with its future needs and set about filling the gaps by encouraging workers to acquire the relevant skills.
"The thing to keep in mind is that there are something like 50 million jobs out there that don't require a bachelor's degree and pay upwards of $40,000 a year," says Harlow Unger, author of "But What If I Don't Want to Go to College? A Guide to Success Through Alternative Education."
He goes on to say that according to the U.S. Department of Labor, by 2010, almost two-thirds of all projected job openings will require only on-the-job training.
So while a college degree was de rigueur for the baby boom generation, that's not necessarily the case now. In today's highly technical and service-related market, workers are judged more on their skills than their sheepskins. (www.cnn.com20 great jobs that don't require a degree)


Skill Development
1. Knowing the work.
Work as said by Peter Drucker “has been the means to satisfy human beings need for belonging to a group and for a meaningful relationship to others.”

Work is meaningful when a worker can appropriately understand her task and accept a personal responsibility to develop continually on this task.

The concept of work has to be clarified. Work is what any one is cut out for that demand time and energy purposely to make the society better. Work could mean to properly arrange and to put responsibility in constructive form.

2. Knowledge
Education and knowledge acquisition inevitable matter most. The concept of global meritocracy, according to economist magazine report 2006, is spreading fast. Every corporation that hopes to be relevant in the global market can only belong to this dream global meritocracy via workers with ability to process and effectively applied knowledge

Academy is simply transmitting and increasing conceptual understanding. This can be done through different methods either as self-directed or self-paced.

“Every great story begins with access to great information” Dr David Oyedepo

In the formal academic setting e.g. university, a syllabus is put in place and could be without improvisation for decades and may not meet the demand of a moving society of organizations.

Rolf P Lynton and Udai pareek, 2000 said “To learn, people need to feel the need for learning…more often people need enhanced skills to qualify them for a task they have or wish for, to feel more effective in life and love, to understand particular relationships and life events better, to make sure they continue growing. Some people feel this last need often and take pride in their ability to learn new habits.”

Steve Covey in "7 habits of highly effective people", explains that it takes one with private victory to experience public victory.

The purpose of syllabus and test is to understand the students’ ability to recall. When students are able to cram and pass it is misunderstood for test of knowledge.

In the year 2004 I was studying the transformation of capital city in European nations and I came across the report of Time Europe magazine having read it I made my submission known to this magazine as the summary of reform in all theses cities

“The head of every nation is its capital; the head of a human is its capital. When I read about regeneration, development, changes and specialties of the cities in your stories, I discovered that the people who successfully transformed the unheralded places you described used their heads to combat complacency. What a great way to use human mind. Mamora olusegun victor-Time (Europe) September 27 2004.” www.mamoraolusegun.com

What I found common among all the Europe nations is skill as ability to effectively apply knowledge and practices in work places and institutions.
Although, academic is a basic step but knowledge acquisition is a continual process for any worker that want to keep working and be relevant in a work place.

Professor Michael Nimier, of the American University of London, said, "if a candidate already has all they need, then they shouldn’t do an MBA! If they don’t, they should look at what credentials and more importantly what set of skills that can move organization forward and it is acquire when relevant knowledge is acquired."

3. Spiritual Intelligence
In "8th habit" by Steven Covey this concept was used as man connectivity with the extraterrestrial.
Every man or woman is a composition of spirit, soul and body. The words spiritual intelligence mean spirit ability. The concept of spiritual intelligence is the ability to connect with divinity through meditation or thinking and principle application. This is to help apply the acquired relevant knowledge to achieve the expected result in the work or assignment embarked on.

It is observed that the strong spiritual intelligence helps morality and this translate into good decision-making. The acts of Jimoh Ibrahim (GMD NICON group) in Nigeria economy and his distinguish decision making is traceable to his spiritual intelligence; he confirmed this in his presentation at the making of leaders conference in Canaan land (Living faith church).
The end result of skill acquisition is a change of status through excellent performance in an identified responsibility.

In my view the ministry of education should be upgraded and functionally equipped to serve as Ministry of human capital development.
Thank you!

Mamora Olusegun Victor
Capacity coach: Raising people of global capability.
http://www.mamoraolusegun.com