Managing Project Competence

The book presents a framework for managing competence in a knowledge-intensive, project-intensive context. It provides tools and templates that could support managers, project managers, HR representatives, and other people in leading positions in a more efficient management of people and competence.

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For companies to be successful, the management of an organization needs to understand how competence evolves and how it can be utilized and linked to the organization’s goals. When executive managers understand this, there is a higher probability that the people working in the organization will be more satisfied with their working situation. Satisfaction increases because competence will likely be central in the organization, with focus on motivating people to develop new competence, healthy internal mobility, and organizational learning. Positively managing competence in most cases leads to a win–win situation for the company and the individual.

This book describes how we as individuals, as well as organizations, can be efficient in the development and utilization of competence. It takes two perspectives of competence and connects them in a project-intensive and knowledge-intensive context. The first perspective is the "Lemon," which focuses on individual competence and the role of organizational culture. The Lemon framework takes the concept of competence based on knowledge and experience and explains how a person can apply knowledge and experience to different contexts. It changes the concept of competence from being static to being agile and dynamic.

The second perspective of competence is the "Loop," which models how organizations can manage not only to the benefit of organizational strategies and goals but also to an individual’s future career. The Lemon and the Loop are the basic tools to make competence and performance management agile and effective.

This book presents practical ways to acquire new knowledge and skills. One method is REPI (Reflection, Elaboration, Practicing/Participation, and Investigation), which can be used for training, coaching, competence development, agile performance management, and much more. Readers of the book are given new insight into the concept of competence and how both people and organizations can be more competitive, innovative, and open to learning. In addition, the readers get practical tools and advice on how to act in different situations to manage both organizational and individual learning.

Managing Project Competence: The Lemon and the Loop breaks old views of looking at competence and brings competence into the knowledge-intensive age.