Chapter fourteen

Application of RESFIA+D in real life

14.1 Specifying the levels

In Chapter 7, I told you about levels of competence. Let me repeat them briefly:

• Level 1: Apprentice
• Level 2: Work under supervision
• Level 3: Self-direct
• Level 4: Integrate
• Level 5: Improve
• Level 6: Innovate
• Level 7: Master

As I said before (in the introduction), RESFIA+D can be used in three ways, and I am going to tell you about them in the present chapter. For all three of them, the tool is used as an assessment instrument, paving the way to create development plans: for individual professionals (14.2), for entire teams of an organization or department (14.3), or for higher education (14.4).

And finally, in 14.5: for you, in the shape of a self-test.

In order to create a genuine and practical assessment tool, it is not sufficient to define a set of levels in general terms. It will also be necessary to define those levels in some detail: specified for all different competences. This is what I did between 2007 and 2010, when I first developed and validated RESFIA+D.

For this purpose, I formulated concrete behaviors for each of the six generic competences. More precisely, I did this for all three achievements of those six competences. This resulted in separate descriptions linked to the various competence levels of all 18 (6 x 3) achievements.

Let me give you one example. For this purpose, I choose competence S: Systems orientation, which was discussed in Chapter 6. Out of the three achievements that were defined for this competence, I will show you S2, about weaving faults and sources of vigor. Chapter 6 (Section 6.2) explained:

Actually, this explanation of S2 in Chapter 6 was derived from the separate level descriptions of S2. Here they are:

Together, the descriptions of the various levels for all eighteen (6 x 3) achievements form a Set of Competence Cards, a reference map that can be used to assess the competences of individual professionals.

If you are interested in seeing the entire set, just download it here and hit the hyperlink to the pdf file:

https://niko.roorda.nu/management-methods/resfia-d.

Disciplinary competence levels

As you know from Chapter 11, an infinitely large set of disciplinary competences exists due to the fact that there is an unlimited and ever-growing number of professions. If you wanted to define concrete competence levels for some of them, you would first have to develop a valid set of competences that are specific to a certain profession.

This is what I did in 2016, as a part of a Europe-wide project aiming at developing a set of sustainability competences for educators. The project was funded by the European Commission. After studying relevant sources and discussing the topic with the members of the international project team, I defined a set of Educator Competences for Sustainable Development. By coincidence, this set consists of three achievements, just like the six generic competences. This is not a necessity; for other professions, the number might just as well be different. Anyway, the three achievements are:

• +D for Educators:
  • D1 Innovate education, regarding structures, methods, and contents
  • D2 Offer challenging, learner-centered education within real-life contexts
  • D3 Involve sustainable development in learner assessments

After these three achievements were defined, it became possible to develop the competence level descriptions. As an example, I offer you D2.

Let me now move to the three ways in which RESFIA+D can be applied as an assessment tool.

14.2 Individual professionals: personal development plan

The first and easiest application is by an individual professional. It might be you, a colleague, a supervisor, a member of your staff, or an intern. Students can do it, as a part of their study program in a university, a college, or a school.

The assessment can be done repeatedly, for instance every one, two, or three years, as a part of a cyclic professional development process.

Step 1: Your present competence, according to yourself

First, you go through all six generic competences one by one; and for each of them you go through the three achievements that are defined.

If, as a preparation, a set of disciplinary competences has been defined for your profession (e.g. by an expert group, by the organization you work for, or by you), you include those as well.

For each of these 18 or more achievements, you sincerely ask yourself, after reading the detailed level descriptions: do I really do this, or at least do I do things that are comparable with these descriptions? At which level do I do it?

Don’t fool yourself by being too optimistic; why would you?

Step 2: Feedback from others

Next, you invite one or more persons who are familiar with you and your work and whom you trust to score the 18 or more topics with you in mind. If enough people do this, you get a 360° feedback.

Of course, if you cannot or don’t want to get this kind of feedback, you can leave Step 2 out.

Step 3: Your ambition

Then, you define your ambition for each of the topics. Before you do, you might select a certain period of time in which you want to realize this ambition: i.e. a target date. The result may look like Figure 14.1, which is an actual result, scored a few years ago by a Dutch professional working as a consultant.

Step 4: Personal development plan

After you complete the assessment, you use the results to think about how you can realize your ambition. This includes things like setting priorities, selecting methods to improve your competence levels (e.g. reading a book, doing an internship, participating in a training course, playing a serious game, investigating internet pages), and finding facilities to do this (e.g. time, money, equipment, teachers, permissions).

14.3 Organizations: Human Resource Development (HRD)

If you work in a company, it may be decided that not only you but also others perform an individual RESFIA+D assessment. Perhaps all the members of a certain team will participate: the consultants, the teachers, the doctors or nurses, the financial staff, the salespersons, and the top managers.

Step 1: Minimum acceptable level

As a preparation, a minimum requirement can be defined. This is a set of 18 (or more, if disciplinary competences were defined) levels that are the lowest acceptable level for anyone within the team.

Step 2: Ambition level

At the other end, also an ambition level is defined for the entire team. This does not require every team member to meet the demands of this ambition; it involves the combined strength of the team as a whole. It may e.g. be decided that all ambition levels need to be possessed by at least one or two team members; if not, the team may not be able to perform its tasks properly.

Step 3: Individual assessments

All team members – or at least those who were selected for the assessment – do the assessment, as described in 14.2. In this case, the 360° feedback should definitely not be left out!

After the individual assessments are finished, the result may look like Figure 14.2.

Step 4: Staff development plan

Based on this result, the team – or its managers – will develop a Staff Development Plan. This plan describes how the team is going to meet the formulated ambition within a limited period of time, e.g. a year. This may be based on negotiations with individual team members, resulting in agreements that certain members will follow courses, perhaps in-company, while others will find different ways to develop themselves. For those team members who don’t meet the minimum demands, such a development plan is especially important; if it were to fail, it might ultimately lead to a dismissal procedure.

14.4 Universities & colleges: curriculum development

RESFIA+D has also proved to be valuable for educational institutions, especially for study programs and their curricula. You can think of scientific and vocational education in universities, colleges, and schools.

The method has been used for a wide variety of disciplines, e.g. technological, economic, social, agricultural, healthcare, law, and teacher education.

If a curriculum is to be (re)designed, this process should always start at the end, that is by (re)defining the outcomes of the study program, formulated as a set of competences of the graduates. This is where RESFIA+D comes in. When the competence profile is defined in a proper way, the curriculum contents as well as the curriculum structure and didactic methods can be derived from it.

Step 1: Composing an assessment group

As a preparation for the assessment, a group of circa ten to 15 people is formed. Together, they have to be representative of all those who are stakeholders of the study program.

Another demand for each of the group members is that they are sufficiently familiar with the current curriculum or, if no curriculum exists yet, with the demands of the professional field and of society in general in relation to the study program.

The group will consist of: lecturers, professors; learners, students; program managers, deans and/or even the institution board; recent alumni (with a fresh memory of the entire study program) – unless the program is brand new; and experienced representatives of the academic or professional field the study program aims at.

In some cases, also: representatives of society in general, e.g. community leaders; education financers; representatives of special interest groups, e.g. minorities or the environment.

Step 2: Creating consensus on present state and ambition

The group meets only once, for half a day or a few hours more. At the beginning, the assessor (someone who is highly experienced in applying RESFIA+D for this purpose) explains the goals and structure of the assessment method and the purpose of the meeting.

Next, the assessor goes through all 18 achievements of the ‘RESFIA’ part, i.e. the generic competences, one by one. If disciplinary competences were defined beforehand, they are applied as well. For each of the 18 or more achievements, the assessor asks three questions, which the group discusses until consensus is reached.

The questions are:

1. 1  For this specific achievement, which is the minimum competence level each student should at least have acquired when graduating? (the ambition)
2. 2  Which is the level that is demanded in the present competence profile?
3. 3  And which level is actually realized by each and every graduate at the very least?

In many cases, the answers to those three questions may be different. It is not uncommon that the group concludes that the ambition for a certain achievement should be, for example, Level 6; while the profile of the program demands perhaps Level 5, and the level that is actually realized, at least by some graduates, may be Level 4.

The overall result may look like Figure 14.3, which was an actual result of the assessment of a study program (Bachelor of Commerce) in 2014.

Step 3: Selecting priorities

After the group has reached consensus on the answers to the three questions for all 18 or more achievements, its task is nearly finished. What remains is setting priorities for an improvement project.

You see, the strength of the assessment is that it is not an external expert who is going to tell the study program team that their program is not good enough. If there are differences between the ambitions and the present state – and there always are – it is the members of the group, including those who are responsible for the program, who draw the conclusions. They themselves determine the necessary improvements; they are the ones who give themselves a task. They own the conclusions.

On the other hand, there may perhaps be as many as 15 or more improvements that are to be realized. But you probably know that any plan with more than – say – three to five main goals is bound to fail. That is why it is important to select a limited set of highest priorities, out of all suggested improvements. Usually this appears to be an easy task. Each desired improvement has been discussed in detail. The group will probably know already, which of them are crucial first steps, and which others will follow easily as a result of the crucial first improvements.

Selecting the priorities is usually done in ten minutes.

The result, which is to be turned into a report, formally has a status of recommendations to the management. Of course, the management is likely to accept and embrace these recommendations since they participated in the discussions, and the conclusions were drawn in consensus. It’s a truly democratic process, creating a lot of support and enthusiasm.

Step 4: Education development plan

The final step will be for the management, i.e. for those people who carry the responsibility for the quality of the study program.

Preferably, the management team meets the very next day, when memories of the assessment are still fresh. During this meeting, the set of recommendations is turned into a solid Education Development Plan.

This plan arranges how and when the current competence profile is adapted, followed by the necessary changes to the curriculum. The plan will involve a time schedule, a budget, the responsibilities of those who are going to do the actual work, their facilities, etc.

It will also contain an overview of the competences the education team will need to develop the improved program and to teach it. Consequently, a new staff development plan may be necessary, if not all necessary competences are present within the team. If so, RESFIA+D may again be useful, this time along the lines of Section 14.3, above.

After the plan is constructed, a period follows in which it is executed. At the end of this period, another round may follow in which RESFIA+D is applied again, leading to new conclusions, and so on. In this way, a quality circle is closed.

14.5 And now some action: the self-test

Dear reader, I am certain that you have wondered about your own personal competence profile a few times while reading this book. Probably, you have compared some of these stories to your own experiences in your career. Would you have acted similarly, had you been in the same circumstances as the professionals featured here? Maybe you actually do things that are comparable with the actions of the professionals in this book. How about your ambitions? Would you perhaps aspire to reaching the master level of sustainability competence?

Personal growth toward sustainable mastership

In Chapter 7, I wrote about levels of competence. For your convenience, here they are again.

• Level 1: Apprentice
• Level 2: Work under supervision
• Level 3: Self-direct
• Level 4: Integrate
• Level 5: Improve
• Level 6: Innovate
• Level 7: Master

It stands to reason that nobody will ever attain absolute mastership in every aspect. Universal masters don’t exist. You can be a master in one area while being a fool or a novice in another. Life is a process of growth that doesn’t end with official retirement as the example of retired social worker Merle Wexler, who continues to volunteer, demonstrates in Chapter 11.

The self-test

The self-test is an easy way to apply RESFIA+D as an individual professional, as described in Section 14.2. In the form below, you can insert your personal level for each of the RESFIA+D competences. If you are in doubt about the exact meaning of a particular competence, you can review the story describing the competence in one of the earlier chapters. If you want to learn more about the background of the competences and how they relate to sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR), you can read more about them in my book Fundamentals of Sustainable Development. In the form below, I added a column referring to the appropriate sections in that book.

If you want, you can download the detailed level descriptions for each achievement, as I mentioned in Section 14.1. If you don’t want to do that, you can estimate the contents of the levels in a more intuitive way.

Below, you can fill out three columns. In the first, you insert your personal scores, based on your own judgment and feelings. (Of course, you may insert very high scores everywhere if that makes you happy, but whom are you really fooling?)

In order to compare your personal judgment to the observations of others, you can ask one or more trusted persons to complete the second column. If you wish, you can even turn this into a parlor game by discussing all of your personal competences with a group of people and determine the scores together.

The right column represents your wish list. Select a concrete moment in the future that is meaningful to you, for instance, one, three, or ten years from now. What sort of professional do you want to be by then? What are your ambitions?

The bottom of the form is about D, i.e. the disciplinary competences. Of course, I cannot determine those for you. Therefore, you will find a number of empty boxes into which you can write the competences you consider relevant. I reserved room for six such competences, but you may expand the list beyond that, of course. However, don’t go too far…

The RESFIA+D self-test

R: Responsibility A sustainably competent professional bears responsibility for his or her own work.	Explanation (Fundamentals of Sustainable development)	Your level (According to you)	Your level (According to trusted person)	Your ambition
R1 Create a stakeholder analysis on the basis of the consequence scope and the consequence period	5.5
R2 Take personal responsibility	8.2
R3 Be held personally accountable with respect to society (transparency)	8.2

E: Emotional intelligence A sustainably competent professional empathizes with the values and emotions of others.	Explanation (Fundamentals of Sustainable development)	Your level (According to you)	Your level (According to trusted person)	Your ambition
E1 Recognize and respect his or her own values and those of other people and cultures	4.3
E2 Distinguish between facts, assumptions, and opinions	8.5
E3 Cooperate on an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary basis	1.3, 4.8

S: Systems orientation A sustainably competent professional thinks and acts from a systemic perspective.	Explanation (Fundamentals of Sustainable development)	Your level (According to you)	Your level (According to trusted person)	Your ambition
S1 Think from systems: flexibly zoom in and out on issues, i.e. thinking analytically and holistically in turn	3.5
S2 Recognize flaws in the fabric and sources of vigor in systems; have the ability to use the sources of vigor	Chapters 2–4
S3 Think integrally and chain-oriented	8.3

F: Future orientation A sustainably competent professional thinks and acts on the basis of a perspective of the future.	Explanation (Fundamentals of Sustainable development)	Your level (According to you)	Your level (According to trusted person)	Your ambition
F1 Think on different time scales – flexibly zoom in and out on short- and long-term approaches	5.5
F2 Recognize and utilize non-linear processes	7.3
F3 Think innovatively, creatively, and out of the box	8.4

I: personal Involvement A sustainably competent professional has a personal involvement in sustainable development.	Explanation (Fundamentals of Sustainable development)	Your level (According to you)	Your level (According to trusted person)	Your ambition
I1 Consistently involve sustainable development in his or her own work as a professional (sustainable attitude)	4.7
I2 Passionately work toward dreams and ideals	4.2
I3 Employ his or her conscience as the ultimate yardstick	8.2

A: Action skills A sustainably competent professional is decisive and capable of acting.	Explanation (Fundamentals of Sustainable development)	Your level (According to you)	Your level (According to trusted person)	Your ambition
A1 Weigh up the unweighable and make decisions	8.5
A2 Deal with uncertainties	6.3
A3 Act when the time is right, and do not go against the current: “action without action”	4.2

D: Disciplinary competences Add competences that are linked to your discipline and/or profession.	Your level (According to you)	Your level (According to trusted person)	Your ambition
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6

You can insert your scores in the empty diagram of Figure 14.4, if you wish.

If your ambitions exceed your present scores – and I hope they do because who does not want to improve? – then think of a plan to make your ambitions come true. Who knows? Maybe, within a couple of years you may have excellently mastered (certain aspects of) sustainable development. Anyway, you don’t have to be a master to be able to act as a sustainably competent professional, as this book has shown.

14.6 The pledge

Finally, medical doctors have their Hippocratic Oath, which they pledge during their graduation ceremony at the end of their academic education program. This is for good reason since they are about to start their professional careers, during which, with some regularity, they – or at least some of them – will have the lives of their patients in their hands. Those are responsible professionals!

And others? Those of us who are not medical specialists? They, too, hold the lives of others in their hands, albeit in a more figurative sense: the lives of humans, of animals, or of nature in general. Managers may support or crush the careers of their employees, and so may teachers in the course of the school lives or university programs of young individuals. Engineers design products in such a way that they may destroy or strengthen the natural environment. Caretakers make the lives of their clients bearable – or not. Artists represent the conscience of society – or they don’t. Aren’t those responsible professions too? I think they are.

Hence my question: do you have the courage to make a pledge, promising you will behave as a responsible and sustainably competent professional?

Information about the pledge is available on my website, at https://niko.roorda.nu/pledge.

You can make your pledge to your husband or wife. To your children, your forefathers, your colleagues, the Bible, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, your stamp collection, or whatever is sacred to you. Legally binding it will not be. Morally binding it is.