In reply to William J Ryan.

Competencies work for complicated tasks but not complex ones. Having a competency like "think creatively" may sound good on the surface but is very difficult to evaluate. I think we should focus on the work that needs to be done, how it gets done and with whom. That means looking at the effectiveness of teams and communities and not individuals. Another problem with competencies is they are usually linked to performance evaluation, which W. Edwards Deming described as a deadly disease.

"A manager of people needs to understand that all people are different. This is not ranking people. He needs to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system that he works in, the responsibility of management. A psychologist that possesses even a crude understanding of variation as will be learned in the experiment with the Red Beads (Ch. 7) could no longer participate in refinement of a plan for ranking people." Deming, W. Edwards. 1993. The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education.

In his own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehMAwIHGN0Y