Skills Management: What is the Secret Sauce? GP Strategies’ Matt Donovan

How do we define work and the skills needed to do the work? The way we view and assess skills is often through assessing and appraising someone’s output. But the problem is that most organizations aren’t capturing the right data and using it to gain insight.

According to Matt Donovan—the Chief Learning and Innovation Officer at GP Strategies—Job descriptions and skills in general describe the baseline. They are not what makes someone great at what they do. 

So how do we define the work and the skills needed to do the work? How can we capture a high-performer’s secret sauce? What are they doing that’s making it a successful experience versus what’s written in the job description?

We dive into a fascinating conversation about where we are now, how AI is going to both help and disrupt organizations, and what the future of skills assessment could look like. 

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...

• Join the RedThread Research Community! [4:18]
• Learn more about Matt Donovan and GP Strategies [5:03] 
• What is a skills-based organization? [7:20] 
• How Matt approaches scope of work [9:33] 
• Building buy-in in your organization [15:55] 
• Matt’s advice for adopting a skills approach [19:11]
• Capturing the “secret sauce” in an organization [21:28] 
• Taking a change management approach [28:13] 
• The lightning round [30:14] 
• Measuring the work being done [37:10] 
• Data-driven performance management [43:32] 
• How do we begin to bridge the gap? [47:05] 
• Why Matt is passionate about learning [54:40] 

Resources & People Mentioned

• Join the RedThread Research Community!
• The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Connect with Matt Donovan

• Connect on LinkedIn

Connect With Red Thread Research

• Website: Red Thread Research
• On LinkedIn
• On Facebook
• On Twitter

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