Step 3 – Building a Personal OD Competence Profile
To construct a robust personal OD competence profile, you need to have a deep understanding of the 11 foundational competences. As you will have noted, each competence description has three parts:
- A general description of the competence
- A look at how the competence is experienced by clients
- What the competence ‘looks like’, with a table that lays out elements of each competence in terms of Knowledge, Skills and Abilities, Attitude and Character
Having reviewed the competences in Step 1 and reflected on your career direction in Step 2, you are now invited to look at the competences on their own, being careful to weigh each competence relative to these questions: Is this competence especially important at this point on my journey towards my desired OD career destination? How proficient do I need to be in it? (Thinking in terms of the next few years.)
It needs to be emphasized that all 11 competences are foundational to the practice of OD. However, in light of your current OD role and key accountabilities, some competences may have more or less priority at this point in time. For example, if you are far along in your OD career, your sense of what is important will likely differ from someone at the beginning of their professional journey. Whatever the case, you are the judge of what is important to your OD aspirations.
There are two parts to the Step 3 process:
Part I: Rating the relative importance of the 11 foundational competences
This is a descriptive and analytical step and not an evaluative step. Each competence is listed in the table below, with a Likert scale to the right of each competence. Using the scale, you are invited to assign a level of importance to the competence, asking yourself: ‘How important is this competence at this point of my journey as an OD professional?’, with 1 being ‘not important’ and 5 being ‘critically important’ (importance being understood in terms of the competence’s relationship to your OD career aspirations).
To the right of each Likert scale, there is space for you to reflect on your reason for the rating you assigned, capturing whatever thoughts might occur to you and seem relevant to the question.
When you have completed Part I, press the ‘Save and Continue’ button to proceed to Part 2.
List of foundational competences for OD Practitioners:
Part II: Rating the elements of each of the 11 foundational competences
In Part II, you are invited to dig a bit deeper into your thinking about the competences. As you have seen, each competence is described in terms of Knowledge, Skills and Abilities, Attitude and Character. Once you complete Part I above, a list will be generated below, reflecting how you rated each competence in descending order, with those you indicated as important at the top of the list. (Note that the list becomes visible only after Part I above has been completed.)
Next to each competence on the list is an Elements button. Clicking on the button will open up a form with a list of that competence’s respective elements, each with its own Likert scale.
Using the Likert scale, you are invited to assign the level of expertise that you judge to be ‘required’ with respect to that competence element in the pursuit of your OD career aspirations. Once again, you are not being asked to evaluate your expertise at this point—only to indicate the degree to which that level of expertise is required in pursuit of that competence.
It naturally makes sense to begin by considering the elements of those competences that you indicated are important at this point of your OD journey. But you are strongly encouraged over time to work through all of the competences. All 11 are foundational to the practice and mastery of OD. Moreover, it is likely that what seems less important at one stage of your career may be critically important at a subsequent stage. The invitation of the app is to keep visiting these questions over time, reviewing and revising as befits your professional journey, working through all 11 competences.
Mark the importance of competences in order to see elements
This form is visible only after you complete Step 3 Part 1.
The completion of Step 3, Parts I and II, with its consideration of the 11 foundational OD Competences and their respective Elements, provides you with a Personal Competence Profile—a record of those competences that you judged to be important to your OD aspirations and professional goals and a rich set of data as you craft your professional OD journey. (Note that once you have saved your work, you can download this step as a PDF document for printing and offline review.)
At this point you are encouraged to not be in a rush. It is important to give some time to reflecting on this data before embarking on the self-assessment process (Step 4). The following questions can help you consider your work in Step 3:
- What is my current OD work portfolio?
- Do the priorities I assigned in Step 3 genuinely reflect what I need to strengthen and/or add to my portfolio of professional skills?
- Am I being realistic and accurate about what is needed to facilitate my effectiveness as an OD practitioner and to help me grow towards mastery?
- In light of the above questions, are there any adjustments that I need to make to my Personal Competence Profile? (Remember this is an iterative document that you can revisit and revise as often as you find helpful.)
Pausing to consider questions like these will help you move confidently and effectively to the self-assessment of Step 4.
Download this step as PDF
You can download this step for review offline or print. After downloading you can still make changes and download again.
