See the whole board
Some people just get it. When faced with decisions they seem to see what others can’t. One second before they gave their view, you were floundering, not sure which way to go. Now it seems so obvious it’s almost embarrassing.
We know this ability when we see it. Here’s a 3-minute clip so you can see an example for yourself (link here if you can’t see anything):
At 2:20 Sam Seaborn says “I don’t know the word”, as he’s trying to work out how President Bartlet pieces it all together.
Well….there is a word. Two words. It’s called cognitive capability, and it has been researched for decades, in particular by Elliott Jaques and Kathryn Cason. Their book Human Capability describes the exact phenomenon Sam is trying to grasp.
A person’s cognitive capability is their ability to comprehend and make sense of the variables coming toward them so they can make decisions. In any given decision, variables can differ in terms of how many there are, how fast they move, what shape they take, whether they disappear and reappear and any other categories we might invent.
The higher a person’s cognitive capability, the more their mind makes these variables take shape, form patterns, and through doing this the decision becomes clear to them. Those with higher levels of cognitive capability will naturally reach for more variables because their mind can handle them.
At 0:30 in the video, President Bartlet advises Sam to ‘look at the whole board’. Cognitive capability is what allows people to see the whole board. Different roles have different sized boards, and the person in the job needs to be able to see the whole thing. This is part of being an effective leader.
In fact, having the cognitive capability to handle the variables of a role is a condition of entry to being able to lead others effectively. Leadership training will not be of great use unless this is in place, because there is nothing we can do to make our cognitive capability unfold any faster than it will.
This is what the research has shown.
Confronting stuff! Worth checking out.
A key issue is how does an organisation know an employees cognitive capability to handle handle decisions in the future when management is more often than not based on past capability also training and development should be based on a persons capability not just what the job requires.
such a lot of learning is wasted because person is not able to comprehend the subject matter and the next question is will they ever.
A good point. Cognitive capability (past and future) can be assessed through a few methods, such as working journey appreciation interviews, discourse analysis and there are some forms of online assessment. And spot on re: training and development – different levels of role required different knowledge, skills and experience.