A U.S. report from the Secretary's Commission on Achieving the Necessary Skills (SCANS), examined areas of workplace competency that will be demanded by high performance organizations in the 3rd millennium. SCANS looked both at what people should have upon graduating from our school systems and also at what is needed to perform well in the workforce. It is instructive to view all of the competencies together and to appreciate that the ability to function well in any one of the competency areas is totally dependent on how well a person thinks. If you agree with the assertion that thinking well is a necessary prerequisite to skills acquisition, what then should be the first priority?

The Foundation Skills for High School Graduates

SCANS suggests that high school graduates should possess the following competencies:

• the ability to read and write to the standards demanded in the workplace to produce correspondence, to interpret information, to be able to use prose and visual displays (e.g. charts) as required
• functional knowledge of mathematics
• the ability to speak clearly and persuasively: to make group presentations, to ask questions to clarify ambiguities
• an ability to listen carefully to benefit from time spent in training, and to pick up the motivations and "hidden" messages of customers, clients, coworkers or supervisors
• thinking skills: to be able to think creatively, to make decisions, to generate alternatives, consider risks, and evaluate and choose the best alternatives, and to recognize problems and devise and implement plans of action
• personal qualities: display responsibility and perseverance, maintain self-esteem, display sociability, adaptability, and politeness in group settings, assess self accurately, set personal goals, monitor progress, exhibit self control, demonstrate integrity, and choose ethical courses of action.

The SCANS Workplace Competencies

SCANS set the following standards for preparing people in the workplace:

• time: allocate time, and prepare and follow schedules
• money: prepare budgets, make forecasts, keep records, monitors expenses
• materials and facilities: acquire, store, allocate and use materials, supplies and space efficiently
• human resources: distribute work and schedule activities according to known tasks and assessment of people's skills
• interpersonal: contribute to group effort as a member of a team; teach others new skills; work to satisfy customers' expectations; communicate ideas to justify new position or to persuade; responsibly challenge existing procedures and policies; negotiate exchange of resources, resolve divergent interests; and work well with men and women from diverse backgrounds
• information: acquire, use, organize, and maintain information; interpret and communicate information; use computers to process information
• systems: understand how social, organizational, and technological systems work, and operate effectively within them. Monitor performance, correct problems, and predict impacts on system operations. Suggest modifications to improve system performance
• technology: work with a variety of technologies. Choose procedures, tools, or equipment, including computers, and apply to tasks. Understand overall intent and proper procedures for setup, operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of equipment, computers, and other technologies.

The competencies SCANS identifies as being desirable can merge with HOT skills but they do not necessarily operate on the same cognitive levels. This begs the question: How effectively can someone master the technical skills without preparation in the intellectual prerequisites? Specifically, effective HOT abilities enable people to produce much better results in the following areas:

• assess other people's skills
• make forecasts
• communicate ideas to justify position or to persuade
• responsibly challenge existing procedures and policies
• negotiations
• resolving divergent issues and opinions
• translate information into meaningful conclusions, recommendations and plans of action
• draw accurate inferences from disparate information sources
• recognize inconsistent, inaccurate, and ambiguous information
• interpret both quantitative and qualitative information
• impose structure from chaos
• structure, evaluate and present convincing arguments
• work well with people from diverse backgrounds
• acquire, use, organize information
• understand how social and organizational systems work
• identify planning project steps from beginning to end
• create and co-ordinate an implementation schedule
• anticipate potential problems (predict and prevent)
• appreciate that there is often more than one solution or answer and that there is strength in exploring a wide range of options
• a desire to understand and an ability to appreciate different perspectives even when they may be in opposition to one's own
• monitor performance of self and others
• suggest modifications for improvement

Any employer would be thrilled to have employees who could perform competently in all of these skill and thinking areas, but such competencies do not just happen and people cannot apply specific skills effectively in the absence of the prerequisite thinking skills. Unfortunately, our school systems for too long have focused on quantity of information as opposed to quality of thinking—they are by no means the same thing.

Next issue will reveal a simple thinking system capable of significantly boosting thinking effectiveness.