17 September 2024

Small Talk Window: the original sin of skills ontologies with Mike Erlin

The way we think about skills today traces back to the 1950s, when the U.S. Army, under psychologist Paul G. Whitmore, set out to standardize training and classify skills into two buckets: hard skills (easy to measure) and soft skills (harder to quantify). This division, what Mike Erlin, our CEO, calls the “original sin” of modern skills ontologies, has shaped how we assess people skills ever since.

In his conversation with Brent Skinner on the “Small Talk Window” podcast, Mike explains why it’s time to rethink this outdated split and embrace a more holistic view of skills. Because, at the end of the day, they’re all human skills—equally vital to success in today’s workplace.

Listen to the episode below!

https://wrkdefined.com/podcast/small-talk-window/episode/the-original-sin-of-skills-ontologies-with-mike-erlin-founder-and-ceo-of-abilitymap

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