Appreciating Specialization

Abstract

The central precept of this chapter is to leverage the division of labor to create a talented workforce. The divided labor can be appreciated to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to develop the talent useful to progress the job. Specialization arises in many situations such as when the experts share their experience, enabling the novice to constantly learn to improve systems thinking and personal mastery. It can also happen as a result of planned on-the-job training. Innovation can happen when individuals segment their knowledge about the job and increase their skillfulness to champion productivity. Technical know-how too can be described as highly structured skill-sets acquired from years of continuous learning and improvement leading to proficiency. Expertise can also refer to innovative and systems thinking, espousing the development of techniques and methods leading to increased productivity. A case study is deployed to understand how competencies were developed and implemented successfully in an enterprise. Appreciative Inquiry change management savoir-faire was deployed to pin-point at what gave life to the business. This information was used to promote the talent needed to boost output in the value creation system.