The Dreyfus model and what we can learn from Gandalf
I can already hear Lord of the Rings fans sharping knives and nocking their arrows, so I will try to make it worth.
At ING we are agile and we want a very flat hierarchy built upon engineers. We believe the key to success is in our engineers and their capacity to develop themselves and their ideas in ING. Here I want to describe one of the tools for their personal development that it is inspired in the Dreyfus model. Explaining this is actually part of my job.
Why is that? This is because I am a chapter lead for IT engineers. And what is that? Well, for starters I am a IT engineer myself. On top of that, one of my duties is to make sure engineers grow.
It is not that anyone can take any credit for a tree growing. However, we keep bringing new plants and rearranging them. We like diversity and our gardening style is not French, but maybe English. Hence, sometimes it is good to pour some water here or there, even to turn a pot towards better light,…
After this short introduction, let me get down to it. We use a framework inspired in the Dreyfus model to communicate the growth process using its five stages: Novice, Advanced, Competent, Proficient, and Expert. In our case, we have two main dimensions: technical capabilities and competencies. The first one is straight-forward for engineers. The second one refers mostly to the so-called soft-skills and it’s not always appreciated in IT companies. We pay big attention to competencies because being technically good is not enough unless you are able to transform that expertise into added value. To give you a couple of examples, being very tech-savvy adds value if you are able to share your knowledge with your team. Having great ideas adds value if you are capable of making those ideas work in our organisation.
Here comes the challenge: it is relatively easy for an engineer to understand what mastery means when referring to a particular technology: Java, security, automation,… you name it.
However, I often struggle when explaining the different levels of mastery in a competency. For example, let’s talk about teamwork. How would we recognise a teamwork master? The answer might not come out right away, particularly in teams lacking actual teamwork, particularly without the simple figure of the team lead or the boss.
One could say: I belong to a Scrum team and it works, therefore I master teamwork. But is this really mastery?
Let me use some similes based on The Lord of the Rings to try and shed some light on this. So thinking about someone skilful who masters something, I can imagine something like an elf, like Legolas, who gracefully does very complicated things without sweating. Although, one could think in similar terms about the Balrog. He could possibly be considered good at what he does but… No, that is not the kind of example I want.
These characters represent the skills but not the competencies. Then my train of thought leads to Gandalf. I think this is the kind of people we want to be: a hero with the right values and the right skill-set but also someone who leads out of respect and makes great teams by finding the right way to improve their dynamics. It is not likely that Mr. Tolkien had teamwork in his mind while crafting this character. Perhaps he had. Definitely not in IT. In any case, Gandalf is great example for it:
- he chose the right novice, coached him and put him in the path of saving the world;
- he set the most improvable team up to an impossible task without any kind of formal authority;
- he got them to work together forgetting their difference of opinion;
- he showed the right path;
- he removed the biggest impediments of their way;
- he believed in them and empowered them;
- he trust them to do the right thing;
- and he even was right there, back, in time, to help at the most difficult moments…
To me, that is definitely a teamwork expert. When you see a Gandalf joining your team, everyone suddenly feels relaxed and confident. Even if Gandalf wouldn’t have a clue about your current technology.
Are you already a Gandalf? Unlikely, there are only a few of them around… but you can get closer to it.
Every developer knows what the zone is. Well, there is a zone for the team too. Can you help your team to work in a full parallel coordinated way? Can you help your teammates to share the tasks in the right way so they maximize productivity and learning? Can you see the potential in that colleague who is still new to a particular technology?
Now that you know what magic is about, it is OK to live happily in the Shire but, if you want to be one of the chosen ones, you need to learn a bit about it. Chances are that the key to your success is in understanding better what possibilities lie behind the mastering of those magical soft-skills.
“Be bold, but wary! Keep up your merry hearts, and ride to meet your fortune!” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
