In many organizations under pressure to change, skills are necessary but insufficient to protect workers from being left out or left behind by company plans. A skilled worker needs more -- and needs to know that they need more.

1. Humans
Resources. Or, Not.

2. Skill Resource Process
Progress (momentum) expertise effectiveness drive
Change (adaptation) resilience versatility flexibility
Innovation (creation) insight imagination technique
Humans as Resources: how people, the org’s current ability, get to be part of its target future capability
The organization’s decision about what capability it needs invariably leads to more decisions about (a.) what supporting abilities it prefers
and (b.) where those will come from.
The skilled employee’s challenge is to be the preferred source of that ability now recruited for the target capability. A typical
misunderstanding is that the high-level perspective for making selections is looking for existing leaders. Instead, the perspective of the
decision-making is essentially about identifying “relevant resources”.
The basic law of attraction is that the skill must be a resource for (an input to) a desired process. A familiar profile of an “attractive”
resource shows influences of skill that in turn generate important qualities of the process.
©2015 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

3. Continuity factors
Value to ability Value to preference Value to capability
Labor using Skill Resource authority Manager using Process
Predictability Motivation Method Accountability
Economy Maturity Priority Efficiency
Safety Experience Permission Scope
But that attraction is only part of the perspective. For the skilled worker, an equally important observation is the notion of identifying an
authoritative resource. For the worker, authority is “the inside track” of preference.
The authority in question is both a reflection of past conditions and a projection of future probability. The “projection” of authority is what
makes a “leading” candidate in terms of preference.
Authority validates preference by articulating it. The degree of preference correlates directly with the probability of being validated.
Naturally this presents the issue of what mechanism is in place to perform the validation – i.e. performs the projection.
©2015 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

4. Self-evident Asset
Qualified Supply
Cultivated Resource
Work “force” Spectrum
(explicit impact)
(prescribed expectation)
(implicit potential)
©2015MalcolmRyder/ArchestraResearch
On a spectrum of mechanisms recognizing authority, one end is the case where the validation is already frankly self-evident by way of the
worker’s current activity observed. The organization is interested in commissioning, subscribing or adopting the explicitly visible influence.
Between the ends of the spectrum is the case of some party acting as an interpreter of tracking data. The organization has some model
that allows characteristics to strongly imply or correlate with predicted impact. If the model is not shared with workers as knowledge, the
effect of being interpreted by the model is, for the worker, simply speculative.

5. On the other end of the spectrum is a case of conditions that need to be developed currently for promoting future validity as a resource.
The cost of resource development will be a factor that, compared to its assumed effects, is an issue in the ROI of change. The worker’s
investment return (benefit) and the organization’s investment may not have equal worth.
While authority can be cultivated, it may originate in:
 expertise (compelling leadership by example),
 sponsorship (judicious executive grant of privilege), or...
 election (consensus delegation)
To present the worker with opportunity to “become” preferred, these origins must be part of the organizational culture and environment,
Critical components of the organization that are vehicles of such opportunity are projects, mentors and communities that are responsive.
Those examples of opportunity call for the worker to demonstrate, integrate and communicate in order to earn organic promotion.
Origin of support for
Authority of resource
Preference via
demonstration
Preference via
integration
Preference via
communication
Project Mentor Community
Expertise Counseling (to peers) Training (initiative) Insight (offered)
Sponsorship Compliance (to plan) Referral (association) Recommendation (held)
Election Commitment (to role) Approval (endorsement) Representation (held)
©2015 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

6. ©2015 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research
www.archestra.com
mryder@malcolmryder.com