******Updated 26th Jan 2024******
In my recent post, Why Can’t we all get Along, I discussed the value of overlapping roles in multi/inter/transdisciplinary teams and referred to using the broken comb shape to describe skills and capabilities. In this post, I’ll expand on that theory and add an approach for using it to help teams build empathy, understanding and opportunities for contributions.
I first saw the broken comb from this post to describe a step beyond T-shaped and π-shaped people. Referring to the skills that someone has. T-shaped means a deep specialism with broad general knowledge and skills, and π -refers to a couple of deep specialisms with breadth across the top.
Broken comb-shaped refers to different levels of skills in multiple areas.
I’m not overly keen on having the word “broken” in there, so I’m calling this the capability comb. Where capability encompasses knowledge, skills and experience
The Capability Comb is a model for people to think about and share how they describe their unique capability profile. It starts to break out of the box that a job description puts them in and allows people to talk about what they excel in, how they want to portray themselves, what they can bring to the team and areas they want to grow in.
How the Capability Comb can help teams
Teams are most successful when they have a shared responsibility for success. They blur the lines of rigid roles to collectively get to the value as quickly as possible. That means people stepping outside of their expected specialisms to support the goal. And the great thing is that most of us have specialisms and interests outside of our job titles, so why not embrace that?
Using the Capability Comb at a team kickoff or reset to help build empathy and find opportunities for collaboration. Brilliant for understanding the shape of your team, blurring the edges of roles and creating one team.
The Workshop
1. Introduce the Capability Comb
The Capability Comb is a quick way for team members to introduce their capabilities and interests while building empathy, learning more about each other and identifying collaboration opportunities.
2. How would you like to describe yourself
You can do this bit in a room together or in your own time before getting together.
Ask people to answer these questions, use the context of work, but add a few hobbies to get a chance to know each other better. Use this opportunity to think about how you would like to describe yourself and what you’d like people to understand about you.
My superpowers are… I can lead on.
Think about the things you are super confident in doing and leading others to do. You enjoy this, have lots of experience to draw on, and you could teach others to do it.
I am good at… I can do on my own.
Think about the things that you are confident in doing. Maybe you have experience in different situations and can do it without any support. You enjoy doing this and can work with others, but you can also get on and do it on your own.
I can do this if I have support… I can collaborate on.
Think about things you enjoy doing, want to do more of and have some experience with. You are comfortable doing this with other people or with support but are not confident to do it on your own.
I’m new to this, but want to improve… I can help with.
Think about things you’d like to do but haven’t had much chance to do before. It might be outside your specific job title or an area you’d like to develop. You could play a supportive role while you learn.
3. Sharing your capabilities
Ask people to share their answers, go around the team and ask people to share what they have put and why, ask follow-up questions if you need to know more.
Add your answers to a shared board to see them together; remember to add names to your answers to see who added what easily.
Look for opportunities to collaborate or places where you can help people learn in areas they’d like to improve. Then use this to help organise your work.
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Remember that your Capability Comb is a snapshot in time, and things will change. Revisit the exercise whenever new people join the team so you can get to know them, too.
If you try this out, I’d love to know how it goes. And if you’d like a Miro board template, please head on over to this one on the Miroverse,
31 January 2024 at 9:40 am
Hi Emily, thanks for sharing this. It’s just the job for a team I’m currently working with. I’d love a copy of the Miro template too. Best wishes
31 January 2024 at 9:52 am
Hey Victoria, I need to pull some bits together on Miro and then I will share something with you.
1 February 2024 at 8:02 am
The template is now available here https://miro.com/miroverse/the-capability-comb-workshop/
1 February 2024 at 9:27 am
Thanks, I like the idea of this. Can I ask, it looks like everyone chooses one point for each of the four ‘levels’. Is there any danger in allowing more than one? If someone has two superpowers, should we not try and harness and make use of both of them?
3 February 2024 at 9:10 am
You should write as many as you want, don’t constrain yourself. You will also possible find you build on it while you’re discussing it in your team.
7 February 2024 at 2:05 pm
Nice work! I especially like the way you have written pairs of statements for each capability level. I think that adds something important to the exercise.
Looking forward to trying this out.