Chapter seven

Levels of competence

Think about it. You are either competent, or you’re not? Of course, in reality, it’s neither; rather, you can be more – or less – competent. A person may be a well-educated and experienced professional who is held in high esteem by everyone, or a novice who has learned quite a few things but doesn’t have much practical experience yet. A suitable model is the medieval concept of the master and the apprentice. The former has mastered the profession deeply. The latter is only allowed to work, for the time being, under the supervision of the master. He or she still has to acquire more skills and is not yet considered competent in the discipline.

To describe the sustainability competences, I will use more than just the two competence levels that the medieval guilds applied. I distinguish seven levels. You can utilize them to assess your own personal competences. In the closing chapters of this book, I will offer you a concrete instrument for this purpose.

Level 1: Apprentice

At the first level, you are an apprentice or a student. You have not yet gathered sufficient competences to practice your profession. You may assist your more experienced colleagues or teachers in the execution of their jobs, the main goal of which is not that you realize concrete achievements, but that you learn from your tasks. You may perform some of your activities in simulated work circumstances instead of real ones. Whenever you do work in a real professional context, your primary obligation is not to produce a result but to show your effort.

Level 2: Work under supervision

At the second level, you are able to perform your job fully or partially – under supervision. You are the “journeyman,” the trainee who is able to achieve solid results with the aid of experienced colleagues. A typical example in the healthcare field would be the recent medical school graduate who is completing a residency under the supervision of a medical specialist.

Level 3: Self-direct

At the third level, you are able to bring into practice what you have learned as a self-directed professional. Not more, not less. At a practical level, you perform tasks that are in line with the usual demands of your profession. Your vision, your opinions, and your activities are mainly related to your personal expertise, your immediate work environment, and the customary work methods. Creativity is not demanded and generally not even appreciated.

Level 4: Integrate

At the fourth level, you are able to position your work within a wider context and benefit from that. In the performance of your job, you navigate a complex range of topics, work styles, persons, and cultures. You may do this:

• beyond the limits of your own expertise;
• taking into consideration different cultures, value systems, traditions;
• beyond the usual expectations and work methods of your profession; and/or
• in flexibly changing roles, e.g. managing.

Level 5: Improve

At the fifth level, you are able to implement concrete improvements in the work that you and others are doing. You oversee – both at a detailed level and at a systems level – your work and the system within which you perform your professional activities. You judge your own work and that of others with whom you cooperate critically, and you estimate its consequences in the widest sense. Based on that, you constantly aim at improving the work to which you contribute, and in doing so, you achieve noticeable results.

Level 6: Innovate

At the sixth level, you are the source of innovation within your discipline. You introduce innovative insights into your work, concerning:

• the goals or targets that have been set;
• the means and methods that are applied;
• the effects of the work;
• the scope of those effects in space and time;
• the underlying vision; and
• the relations inside and outside of your work environment or your discipline, e.g.: society as a whole.

These innovations are demonstrably visible in your professional activities and in their results.

Level 7: Master

At the highest level, you are prominent within your discipline. You have reached “mastership.” Others learn from you. You are their role model, their “archetype.” Your inspiring leadership is recognized and accepted by all. Such masters are extremely rare. You may think of Nobel Prize winners and Oscar winners, or others who perhaps have not won official awards, but who are recognized at a conference or meeting because when they start talking, everybody else becomes silent and listens. Probably, you can name one of a few of those special persons within your own professional sector.

In order to contribute to sustainable development, you don’t have to be a master. The stories in this book prove that every professional, working at whatever level, can be a sustainability hero.