The Ecology of Insurance Competence: Educating the Holistic Professional EIET October 2014 Tony Culley, Richard Cotter Summary In essence, what are we going to say? From a theoretically informed practice perspective – four things: 1. Insurance has evolved and is evolving; so too is business and the world of work generally 2. This requires a fresh and honest look at professional competence and how this is cultivated by all the stakeholders involved 3. Competence itself needs to be viewed more ecologically and so do the pedagogical approaches deployed to develop it 4. Local organizational cultures are key in terms of making competence cohere: formal education alone is not enough: ultimately context is decisive in terms of how education translates into practice (Davis, 2009) and whether competence develops successfully into expertise (see Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 2005; Sternberg, 2005) File name / department / author 2 Insurance Evolution Professional Education is saturated with a Compliance Paradigm! Does that model adequately meet this ‘new normal’? File name / department / author 3 Business and work evolution Everything is changing? Mintzberg’s buttons: “Attend some speech on management. It is likely to begin with the claim that ‘we live in times of great change’. As you hear this look down at the clothes you are wearing. Notice the buttons and ask yourself, ‘if we really live in times of great change, how come we are still buttoning buttons?’” (Mintzberg, 2009, p.13) Maybe not quite everything, then, but change is always occurring and no matter what, it is always new and occurring in different contexts to different people… File name / department / author 4 Business 1. Insurance evolving cont. “Self-service” “Distribution revolution” Work Technology Technology (again) Freeing up knowledge workers / Automation, deskilling Customer Tenure Tenure shortening Roles changing Geopolitical balance of power Ethics Lifelong learning Regulation New expectations Business’ ‘brand’ The great “rebureaucratisation”? Eager or retired learners? Me, me, me? (Too harsh!) Wouldn’t it be strange if in the midst of all this change, methods of professional education didn’t need to change too? It would, so they are…but how? File name / department / author 5 Current Approaches Current approach Competence Development • Depends on your entry point – Are you destined for greatness? Or is everyone equal at point of entry? • Typically you ‘hang tough’ take the exams, do the CPD, do a bit of ‘Sitting by Nelly’ and pray that serendipity and timing will coalesce to propel you forward • Along the way you also learn to adapt to culture and the various levers that will and won’t advance your career. File name / department / author 6 Current Approaches Current approach Competence Development cont. • The contrarian entry level 21 year old V The ‘wise’ 35 year old • Some questions in consequence:  Is the educational ‘medicine’ appropriate  Perhaps educationalists have it right? Stick to the knitting, give them the curriculum and CPD and the boxes are ticked  Do / should employers have any say in how this stuff is designed or delivered?  Perhaps employers need to take a harder look at cause and effect: culture and motivation are critical This brings us to our main theme: competence as an ecology which requires an ecological approach … File name / department / author 7 Ecologies of competence In what sense are we using the term ecology? We use it to mean that professional practice is a ‘living thing’ (Kemmis et al., 2012) and all the various elements that go into making up the competence to practice interact: “The novice works towards competence and then expertise through deliberate practice [which] requires an interaction between five elements” (Sternberg, 2005, p.19) Let’s take a look at these elements… File name / department / author 8 5 elements of 5 Elements competence of Competence For us, ecology of competence means that learning to become an insurance professional is more than one thing - it is many things interacting together which can be more or less in harmony  “Although it is convenient to separate these five elements, they are fully interactive” (Sternberg, 2005, p.19) – an implicit warning that the good is the enemy of the best?  This ecological principle is not just an abstract philosophical point: if we are serious about developing competence it must have actual pedagogical implications  These implications are for all the stakeholders involved – a matching ecology of development accountability  Motivation is key: without it all other elements remain inert. Context is also vital: it shapes and is shaped by each element Metacognitive skills Learning skills Knowledge  Thinking skills Motivation File name / department / author 9 An ecological take An ecological take on competency development • Broadly speaking, books, exams, Lectures, even case studies = knowing that. Practice, mentoring, coaching, experience, and reflection in a feedbackfused context = knowing how (see Ryle, 2000) • To put it another way: practice can be messy, uncertain and complex so the application of one type of knowledge (knowledge that) often requires another form (knowledge of how) • Ultimately, we learn to become reflexively competent in time and space (see Cotter, 2014) with others mimetically (Lave, 1996) and socially within ‘communities of practice’ (Wenger, 2000) • We don’t make ourselves competent alone by ‘knowing stuff’ ; ultimately it is a relational endeavour – this is true even for minimum competency roles File name / department / author 10 An ecological take An ecological take on competency development cont. • Businesses and customers want /need rounded professionals, so indirectly they too are demanding ecological models of competence development • Education is a building block only, albeit an important one – you don’t know, what you don’t know. The point, however, is not a hierarchy of forms of knowledge but an interactive and mutually interdependent approach, i.e. an ecological one • “Knowing-doing” gaps (Pffefer, 2000) arise when the various elements of competency development are not ecologically connected and supported by ‘structures that reflect’ (Nicolini et al., 2004) • Educational Institutes and Organizations need to work more closely together to ensure professionals are both compliant and competent File name / department / author 11 Take Aways What can companies do? • Make sure stakeholders understand competency ecologically and champion it’s development in this way • Demand more of your HRD professionals • Don’t mistake being compliant with developing (full) competence • Expand your idea of what learning is to encompass ‘other-than-education’ elements • Arguably, context is decisive in terms of how competency develops and is practiced: remember that contexts can be shaped to become more rather than less supportive File name / department / author 12 Endnotes • Thank you for your attention • References used in this presentation are available on request* • Question for you: What are you doing to develop professional competence ecologically in your organization? *[email protected] File name / department / author 13