Advancing Talent Development

CHAPTER 2

Deep Systems Knowledge Brings System Thinking

Philip Gardner and Heather Maietta

Introduction

The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) (1991) report set forth the necessity that workers understand, not only their own work role, but their actions in the context of the work of the others around them. This internal perspective positioned each employee as a member of an organizational system where they were expected to understand the different parts of the system and their connections as outlined into three “elements”: functional skills or an understanding of what people actually do at work; enabling skills or specific knowledge and procedures developed through educational means; and scenario or the ability to demonstrate ...