Section: RETOOLING THE IS ORGANIZATION

Getting the IS Staff Up to Warp Speed

As IS managers embark on the challenges of reskilling the IS work force and achieving higher
levels of performance, their tool of choice is often the competency model. A competency
model clarifies the knowledge, skills, and behaviOrS that make for successful performance in
any job.
To achieve warp speed in the move to client/server systems, an IS organization has to learn to
free itself of all friction and gravity pull. After years of doing things the same way, an
organization accumulates a lot of baggage. It is the old corporate and personal baggage that
people have to be willing to remove in order to make way for new knowledge, skills, and
behaviors--the essence of a competency model.
ADAPTING TO HARSH REALITIES

Another GIG bites the dust. It is happening so often that it almost isn't industry news anymore. Another major IS outsourcing contract makes headlines. As part of the deal the outsourcer promises to hire the 450 systems people of the affected company. Suddenly these
numbers don't even look large. Microsoft Corp. and one of its newest alliance partners
announces a plan to move customers off Windows and onto object-oriented technology. The
federal government is insisting on using the Computer Maturity Model as the quality standard
for all future government software contracts, regardless of the size of the contract. Another
merger, and the in-house IS staffs have to figure out how to consolidate the incompatible
systems.
Such news is dizzying and almost an excuse to do nothing but sit back and watch the show.
Why should an IS management team faced with potential dismissal, outsourcing, or
acquisition bother? The odds seem stacked against anyone making a dent in IS staff
development, much less accelerating IS staff reinvention. Yet every day, IS organizations
embark on these challenges, and their tool of choice is a competency model.
Major IS organizations and software companies view the challenge of continuous reskilling of
the IS workforce as a company imperative, no matter what business option the company
might choose--merger, acquisition, or out-sourcing--or what technology direction it is heading
toward (e.g., client/server, PCs, or wireless communications systems). The need to stay ahead
of the learning curve is the only way to survive.
Some companies have already built and are in the process of implementing competency
models to guide them in this quest for reinvention and retooling. Many others have it on the
drawing board or in their formally approved plans.
LEGACY TOOL FOR CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

Competency models are not a new concept, having been around for well over 20 years. The
concept developed by David McClelland was the result of his growing belief that high IQ was
not a determinant of high performance on the job. McClelland successfully demonstrated his
concept by helping the government better select candidates for the foreign service. His
concept was that top performers use certain specific knowledge, skills, and behaviors to
perform a specific job in an outstanding manner. If you spend the time to study top
performers, you can see what makes the performance difference.
The value of a competency model comes from the definition and examples that enable
professionals to visualize what is expected of them to do a better job, to assess themselves
against an ideal model, and to develop a plan of action that will help close the gap between
current performance and ideal performance. The model takes something that is fuzzy and
gives it definition.
THE COMPETENCY MODEL TREND

Is organizations apply the concept of the competency model to their particular needs and
situations for several reasons. It is one of the more precise means for clearly laying out what
is expected of an employee when the company and the management team are expecting to
operate at a new and higher level. It is behaviorally anchored so that both managers and
employees can see what is expected of them. It is quickly constructed and easy to modify if
necessary. It is also trendy. Anyone who is anyone in executive development has a model or
two at his or her fingertips.

By far, however, the most compelling and possibly the most powerful reason for adopting this
approach is that it makes explicit what the best performers already know and are doing and
what the other performers know in their hearts that they too must do in order to improve their
performance and stay effective in their jobs.
A Model That Is All Encompassing Yet Focused

To be effective, a competency model must be robust enough to take into account the
multitude of requirements that are being placed on the IS organization. The requirements
come from three fronts.
Balancing the Enterprise, IS Function, and Technology. First, the enterprise itself might have
gone through a rightsizing, delayering, and an empowering movement. The bottom line:
fewer people working smarter and better. The enterprise is straining to stay competitive and
has redesigned and redefined itself to be agile, flexible, and responsive to the customer and
market changes.
Second, the IS function may have recently had to rethink its role and contribution to the
corporation and concluded that it needs to be more focused on internal customers, more
responsive, and more business knowledgeable. The combination of the enterprise and the
functional requirements represents a tremendous pressure for change. Depending on whether
someone is an optimist or a pessimist, the pressure can be an opportunity knocking or a
severe migraine headache.
The third dimension is unique to the IS organization: its technical expertise. There has always
been an expectation that the IS function should lead in the technical domain. The IS function
is expected to know how to pick the right technology, but it is now expected to do it taking
into account both enterprise and functional requirements.
A comprehensive model for IS, then, has to have three dimensions--enterprise, IS function,
and technology--with the proper emphasis placed on all three and no one dimension more
heavily weighted than the others. The tendency in IS has generally been to weigh the
technology too much. Information technology is, of course, the traditional bread and butter of
the IS organization. However, the corporate message is that technology alone is not sufficient.
IS has for some time been redefining itself as a value added to the corporation by assuming
new roles and acquiring the necessary skills. The competency model, if properly constructed,
conveys the right balance.
ELEMENTS OF A COMPETENCY MODEL

What do we mean when we refer to a competency model? As we define it, a competency

model comprises three elements for successful execution of the tasks in any given job. These
elements are:

The knowledge required for successful performance. Examples might be knowledge of what
constitutes effective project management, an understanding of key technologies, or how the
business in which IS resides really operates.
The skills, both technical and nontechnical, necessary for successful performance. Examples
might be how to manage projects effectively (beyond the knowledge of what good project
management involves), writing ability, and speaking ability.
Appropriate on-the-job behaviors needed to bring both knowledge and skills to bear. Examples
here might include demanding concrete communication from others, actively seeking out
needed information from all sources to complete certain tasks, or insisting on the achievement
of high standards in your own work and in the work of others.

Simply put, the term competency model refers to the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that
make for successful performance in any job. Exhibit I illustrates sample competency topics for
IS professionals in three types of companies.
IMPLEMENTATION VS. CONSTRUCTION

So that the reader is not lulled into thinking that all this seems so easy, it is important to point
out that the real work is not in building the model--that has been done over and over again
with great success, and there are many companies out there willing to share their models and
war stories. Exhibit 2 highlights the various ways that a model can be constructed and rates
(on a high to medium to low scale) the associated cost, probability of fit, and probability of
usage. The real challenge, however, is learning how to implement the model once it is built.

Most companies start off thinking that their organization is so unique that a generic model or
one borrowed from another company would never work for them. Only the realities of the cost
might deter a company from proceeding to build its own models from scratch. However,
whether a model is built, jerry-rigged, or borrowed and modified, what seems to make the
difference has to do with whether or not it is finally institutionalized. It is in the long-term that
the payback really occurs.
SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION

The secrets of successful construction and implementation of a competency model are not
that much different from any other change effort. To start, someone needs to champion the
concept of competency models.
The relevance of the competency model to business and personal success must be made
clear. The rules of when and how the information will be used must be honored. The concept
must be eased into the organization through pilots, debriefings, and responsive adjustments.
The initial year of trial and error should not influence salary decisions but should affect
personal development decisions. Finally, tire end product must be highly user-friendly.
From organizations that have successfully implemented competency models, here are some
practical tips:

Call it a competency model in the back room, but call it a leadership model out in the
organization. The point is to get management's undivided attention and support. Besides, who
can argue that the organization can't benefit from solid leadership skills?
If there are only xx dollars to spend, spend 10% on building the model and 90% on
implementing it. An expensive, purist effort to build a model without thorough, unrelenting
attention to implementing it will only produce another dust-covered report on someone's shelf.
Keep the model simple, limiting the number of key variables to what the organization can
realistically absorb and manage. Remember that competencies are knowledge, skills, and
behaviors; don't spend a lot of time arguing over which category an item like "customermindedness" falls into.
Use key words that have a broadly' understood meaning in themselves and do not require
elaborate definitions. Let the daily vocabulary of the culture be a guide.
Recognize that outstanding performers are already using most of the competencies.
Communicate this fact repeatedly to the organization as a way to give the model immediate
legitimacy.
Once the model is published, count on 20% of the workforce to start using it with no instruction
or guidance. Be thankful there are that many self-motivated employees.
Pilot the model with the highest-level executives who will volunteer and act as role models. Be
sure to include the concept's champion in this group.
Avoid introducing the model in a negative manner, such as to downsize an organization.
Corporate memories are long and the model may never lose its tarnished first image.

All this advice comes with a major caveat. The enterprise itself must be in a state of readiness
to accept such an intervention. Competency models fit best in companies that have a culture
that is open and empowering, that are well managed and have a history of personal
development and discovery. If a company is introducing a competency model with
expectations that it will somehow significantly change the culture, dramatically improve
management, and create a new climate of openness and employee empowerment, then their
goals are over-reaching and potentially counterproductive. A competency model is an enabler
to change. It is a tool that can be the centerpiece of a change effort, but many other practices
must also be in place to make it successful.
A MODEL FOR ALL SEASONS

A competency model is best thought of as a blueprint, a set of design principles or underpinnings for several important human resources programs. The model can be used as the
basis for executive development, recruitment, selection, compensation, performance
appraisal, career development, job design, and organization design. In its crudest form, it is a
yardstick for measuring how someone is performing, comparing current performance to an
ideal and suggesting actions that can be taken to improve that performance. What makes the
competency model concept work is its simplicity, the prevailing conditions in the company
that provide a fertile bed in which it can grow, managers believing in it, and employees
accepting it.

A Model Tailored to the IS Organization

Although the idea of a model has merit and a good track record of limited implementation
within numerous job families, it is important to note the significant differences when applying
a model to the IS population.
One major difference is the need to incorporate technical updating into the model. This isn't
easy because a paradox exists. A company needs both the old and the new technology at the
same time. In the IS world, among the issues to consider are the migration from mainframes
to client/server architectures, the switch frown islands of technology to total connectivity,
from COBOL to C++, from "doing by yourself" to managing it through a hoard of outside
programmers-for-hire or a large systems integrator.
IS organizations are being overwhelmed by the onslaught of technology and the pressing
need to keep up with technological change. The companies they serve, on the other hand,
cannot quite figure out how to release them for training because IS organizations are needed
to keep the legacy systems running and main-rained. This dichotomy provides a tension that
isn't new; however, well-intentioned managers are finding it difficult to work the right kind of
development into the work schedule. When time is at a premium, something has to give-unfortunately, that something is the goal of IS professionals becoming more business
knowledgeable and customer-minded.
For many IS professionals, it appears like an either-or situation; there seems to be no
solutionfor becoming both technically competent and business knowledgeable at the same
time. The IS professional's first inclination is to say, "I can be technically competent or
business competent, but not both." Among some IS professionals, doing both seems
unrealistic and indeed counter to the very reasons they entered the field. In this situation, a
model presented as having been developed based on the best performers can make a
compelling case, especially when the model is offered as a glimpse of the company's future.
The model's probability of acceptance and internalization is greatly increased when three
factors are operating:

There is no punishment if in measuring against the model an employee does not stack up.
There is a process for individuals to improve themselves and a contract with the organization to
do so.
There is a timetable for the company and the individual to work together to improve
performance.

To successfully embrace a competency model that calls for individuals' mastering significantly
different knowledge, skills, and behavior, IS professionals must be assured that the company
is compassionate but means business; that the new yardstick has merit but that it, too, will
change over time because it must change to remain relevant.
A Flexible Model

The inevitability of the model changing sooner rather than later is a critical point for several
reasons. First, it acts as a natural limiter for how much money should be spent in building the
model in the first place. Most organizations are changing so fast that any management mettic must be reinspected frequently to remain contemporary.
Second, change should not be confused with the idea going out of style. Competency models
and other kinds of performance clarification and measurement approaches are likely to be
around for a long time. For example, the movement to self-managed teams and
telecommuting task forces will require continual redefinition of what constitutes outstanding
performance. A model that is not open to continual reinspection and updating should not be
implemented.
Frequent reinspection and updating must not be seen as signs of a flawed model but as an
evergreening process. True, there may be a tendency not to change the model if a company
believes it spent too much money constructing it. But changing the model is highly
appropriate because it sends the right message to the very people who are counting on it to
guide them in their performance.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT BASED ON THE MODEL

Once the model is in place, to achieve the commensurate change in skill and knowledge the
company must stick to the agenda. If the model calls for IS professionals to become more
creative, then the company should offer a specific course that addresses ways to be more
creative. If the company wants its IS staff to be more comfortable in the consultant role, they
should be offered a course or assignment to get them there. With a good model, there need
be no ambiguity whatsoever on what a person must and can do to improve performance.
Exhibit 3 gives an example of an IS competency model and recommended development.
To meet the objective, the company and the workers might even agree on an arrangement
whereby development could occur both on personal time and on company time. The company
might elect to set aside special funds or bonuses for employees as an incentive to master and
demonstrate new knowledge and skills. These techniques are well known but not always well
practiced in companies if they don't invest the time and money it takes for the long-term
implementation.
Another implementation issue to remember: Every person in the IS organization is required to
change. A program aimed at the masses is destined to fail if it does not first consider and take
into account the needs of the organization's managers who are the main implementers of
change. The competency model approach must address manager-workers so that they can
then focus on their direct reports.
STAYING POWER

Competency models bring precision and clarity to the difficult and too often subjective area of
personal development. They work in the IS arena--though how well and how fast they work
depends on a myriad of factors, many of which lie outside the design of the competency
model and all the associated tools and applications.
IS executives who have used competency models have identified certain factors that can get
in the way of implementation. Their list of 10 factors includes:

Lack of IS leadership.
Absorption with too many mission-critical problems.
Resistance within the human resources function.
IS tendency to overengineer.
Poor image and credibility of the IS group.
Financial pressures.
Turf wars.
Misguided belief that there "is not a problem."
Lack of implementation skills.

By far, however, the issue that tops the list most frequently is culture. Culture is probably the
most pervasive factor that acts as an inhibitor to any kind of change, be it competency model
introduction, creative compensation plans, or aggressive diversity initiatives, to name just a
few. An IS organization can be justly accused of mismanagement if it is thinking about
building and implementing a competency model and is not first tackling the issue of
thoughtfully introducing useful innovation into a culture programmed to fondly embrace the
old and reject the new.