The Core Skills

In their combined 40+ years of experience in organizational development, change management and training, the Principals of the Adao Institute for Change have encountered a recurring theme. While pressure to perform comes from bottom line objectives, the ability to deliver on those objectives depends on the capacity of the people. Paradoxically, obstacles to success typically flow from poorly understood or improperly managed people issues. 

Our society and our educational system focus on teaching content - what we at Adao call the "butcher, baker, knowledge maker" approach. From an early age, people are expected to absorb and regurgitate data. Unfortunately, the ability to thrive in a demanding environment comes, not from mastering content, but from mastery of conduct. And for mastery of conduct, we need the Core Skills.

The Core Skills are:

Human Dynamics (humanFLOW™)  - understanding how we relate and react to the world. It is about recognizing that we are all different and learning how best to interact given those differences so that we can better leverage the unique talents of ourselves and others.

Communication (communicationFLOW™) - maximizing the flow of information from one person to another in a meaningful and useful way. It is about developing the ability to share and take in information more effectively, allowing for filters and varied communication styles.

Problem Solving (problemFLOW™) - mastering the ability to close the gap between what is and what is desired. It is about knowing how to figure out where we are and where we want to be. It is about working out the steps to an effective solution, and having the confidence to carry them through.

In May 2000, The Conference Board of Canada Employability Skills Forum and the Business and Education Forum on Science, Technology and Mathematics released their Employability Skills 2000+ Report. The report documents the critical skills needed in the workplace, whether self-employed or as an employee. These critical skills are listed as communication, problem solving, positive attitudes and behaviours, adaptability, working with others and science and math skills.

With the exception of the last two, all of these critical skills fall within the Adao Institute's Core Skills Training™ program.   Sadly, they also fall outside the typical school curriculum. In both school and business, these "hard to measure" skills are often left to chance and osmosis. So organizations struggle to meet bottom line demands while wrestling with "people issues" that never end. Training dollars are allocated to content education in the form of technical and legally mandated courses, while mastery of conduct is left to the individual to figure out by trial and error.

The Adao Institute for Change is committed to changing this reality. With Core Skills Training, employees, teams, managers and executives can develop the difference that makes a difference. Human Dynamics, Communication and Problem Solving are invisible and hard to define, yet they are the glue that holds an organization together, the grease on the flywheel that keeps an engine running, the pulsing core of the furnace that fuels success and growth.