CARVE YOUR CAREER – What is Your Professional Domain of Practice and Expertise?

Think about this...

A university graduate and a high-school dropout (economic reasons) started a job in the same department at the same time at very different grades.

10 years later, the university graduate was still working in the same department but had not developed that much more knowledge about the domain of practice than he did when he first joined.

In the same 10 years, the high-school dropout was also still working in the same department and had progressed to more senior positions. However, she had developed her knowledge of the domain of practice to such levels that she was able to not only come up with solutions to complex problems but also come up with new ways of approaching problems and coming up with solutions. She regularly gets invited to give industry talks and keynote addresses on leading domain practices in the industry.

The difference observed between these two people could be attributed to how each person viewed the role domain knowledge plays in enabling what each person considered as success in the practice. The desire to solve domain problems will require increasing levels of domain knowledge, especially given that these problems and the right solutions will naturally vary in complexity across contexts. Intentionality, purposefulness, and accountability invariably require increasing levels of domain expertise in as much as it means the person is pursuing meaningful results.

This article follows the previous article on "Building Capabilities for Accountability Beyond Job Titles" where I introduced domains of expertise, professional activities, and competency (the graphic below).

In this article, I will go into more detail about domains of professional practice and expertise.

How much domain expertise do you need?

It is becoming increasingly clear that you do not need to be a deep expert in a domain in order to be able to perform in that domain. The reason for this is that every job has different levels of work. Every job can be performed purely as an activity relying very little on situational judgment or decision-making.

In the previous post, I talked about domains of expertise and explained how your domain knowledge determines your ability to understand what results are possible, what you desire to achieve, make situational judgments and make decisions on what actions to take in a situation to achieve your desired results.

At the base of the triangle, you only need to be able to understand and follow instructions, much like following a recipe doesn’t make you a cook but you do end up cooking the dish and unsuspecting people will probably not realize that it wasn’t a professional cook who made the dish. Another example is building a site with a template, this doesn’t make you a web designer or developer, but you do end up with a site and it is possible that visitors to the site probably won’t realize it wasn’t built by a professional web designer.

The main difference between the base of the triangle and the upper sections is the complexity of the problem to be solved. The complexity here is a function of a few things:

Solving a Problem vs performing a task or activity

This has to do with the scope of your responsibility (not accountability)

• Whether you are responsible for understanding the problem and coming up with a solution or
• Responsible for executing tasks or performing actions to implement a solution that has been developed

Variables

This has to do with the nature of the variables and principles/theories of interaction or relationships that define the problem and the solution. Are they

• Known and understood in the body of professional or domain knowledge or currently unknown or still being studied
• Known in this specific context (e.g. organization and specific problem to be solved)
• Pre-defined for this specific problem or solution (i.e. already worked out and ready for actions to be taken)

Level of Abstraction or Theory

This has to do with the nature of the problem and the solution

• Is the problem or solution attained simply by direct manipulation of physical/tangible variables? Or
• Does the problem or solution require manipulation of abstract theoretical variables that represent physical variables, the principles of interaction between those variables, and are expected to predict the outcomes of manipulating those variables?

Conditions of Performance

This has to do with the other factors that affect how the problem is to be solved

• Time constraints
• The severity of the consequences of failure

You cannot solve problems that require higher levels of domain knowledge than you currently possess

The more complex the problem, the more domain expertise is required in assessing achievable results, making situational judgments, and deciding what actions to take to solve the problem.

Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives is a common way of describing levels of knowledge based on how the knowledge can be applied to decisions and activities. The graphic below summarizes the relationship between the levels of work and bloom’s taxonomy (reference Vanderbilt.edu)

Bloom’s taxonomy triangle is based on Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [August 22, 2022] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/.

Domain knowledge is about theory applied in practice. How well do you understand the theory and principles applicable to the problems you are trying to solve and the solutions you are responsible for creating or implementing?

Given the theoretical basis of domain knowledge, the easiest way to describe levels of expertise is to think about levels of educational qualification. However, it is important for me to state that this is not about academic qualifications, it is merely using the qualifications as a proxy for the level of domain knowledge.

The focus is on your ability to make the decisions necessary to define and achieve your desired results in the situations you encounter.

Think about your current role, at what level of the triangle are you currently performing the role?

What level of domain knowledge do you have?

Assessing the level of domain knowledge focuses on the ability to read situations, analyze what is going on, determine what results can be achieved (situational judgment), and make decisions about what actions to take.

The level of domain knowledge is demonstrated in a real-work context but can also be observed through appropriately designed case studies, realistic simulations of real work contexts, and conversation.

For simplicity, I look at four levels of domain knowledge

Basic

• Limited understanding of theory and principles behind actions and results (not able to talk about it).
• Aware of a Limited range of concepts and principles, typically the basic and simple ones
• Bloom’s Taxonomy: Think Remember and Understand
• Academically: Think equivalent to High School level or professional certification at this level

Intermediate

• Some understanding of theory and principles behind actions and results (able to talk about it but not fully explain)
• Aware of a wider range of concepts and principles at more complex or abstract levels
• Bloom’s Taxonomy: Think Apply and Analyze
• Academically: Think equivalent to Poly or bachelor’s level or professional certification at this level

Advanced

• Understands the theory and principles behind actions and results (able to explain and teach it)
• Up to date on the latest thinking in the domain
• Can understand and effectively apply current and new thinking, regardless of abstract level and complexity of concepts and principles
• Bloom’s Taxonomy: Think Analyze and Evaluate
• Academically: Think equivalent to honors level or professional certification at this level

Expert

• Same as advanced but with the addition of being able to come up with and introduce new concepts, principles, and practices acceptable and respected by the domain
• Bloom’s Taxonomy: Think Evaluate & Create
• Academically: Think equivalent to postgraduate level or professional certification at this level

These levels roughly map to the levels of work as shown below

When you think about domain knowledge and expertise, you are really thinking about your level of familiarity with the body of knowledge in that domain in order to be able to solve problems at the various levels, especially if it is your responsibility to solve the problem (as different from being accountable and relying on the expertise of others).

Specialist Domains of Practice and Expertise

In the previous post when I introduced the idea of a domain of practice and expertise, I talked about primary and secondary domains.

I also mentioned that organizational structures represent domains of practice and expertise.

Here I want to add specialist domains.

Specialist domains refer to domains of practice where the body of professional knowledge available and in use in practice is significant, complex, and will take a considerable amount of time, effort, and cognitive abilities to learn.

Also, for specialist domains, the responsibility tends to be to solve problems not simply execute solutions. What this means is that at a minimum, an intermediate level of domain knowledge is required in order to be able to discharge any set of responsibilities in a specialist domain.

Given the volume and complexity of the knowledge and the requirement for higher levels of understanding or expertise, it makes specialist domains different and hence I called them out.

There is no simple way to define a specialist domain. What I have noticed is that each organization decides how they want to leverage that domain of practice or expertise in their organization. This decision manifests in the types of roles they create to perform activities in that domain. I will explain more about this in the next post on professional activities.

So now we have three types of domains

• Primary – the solution domain but might be simply executing a created solution
• Specialist – a subset of primary so it is the solution domain but focused on creating solutions
• Secondary – the problem domain where the problem to be solved exists

To help think or visualize the primary and secondary relationships, I created the visual below:

Note that the "business line" domain is defined by the industry in which the organization is operating. The industry represents the primary domain of practice for the organization and the business line is the specialist domain providing solutions to the problems of the people (customers, secondary domain) in that industry.

Here are a few examples of the primary/secondary relationships with the specialist dimension included:

Human Resources (HR)

• You are working in HR Technology.
• Your primary Domain is HR your specialist domain is technology
• When solving problems for the HR department, HR is your secondary and technology is your Primary (specialist)
• When solving HR problems for the rest of the organization, the specific departments/units are the secondary domains and HR technology is your primary (specialist) domain.

Finance

• You work in finance operations
• Your primary domain is Finance
• No obvious specialist domain
• When solving the finance department's problems, your primary is operations, your secondary is finance
• When solving finance-related problems for the rest of the organization, the specific departments/units are the secondary domains, and finance operations is your primary domain.?

Personal Assistant (PA) or Business Manager (BM) for Any Department Lead

• You work in the “department”
• Your primary domain is “the department”
• No obvious specialist domain
• When solving “the department lead’s” problems, the “department lead” is your secondary and Personal Assistance or Business management is your primary
• When solving “the department lead’s” problems for the rest of the organization, the specific departments/units are the secondary domains, and “the department lead PA or BM” is your primary domain.

So, think about your role again,

1. What is your primary domain
2. Are you in what you’d describe as a specialist domain?
3. What secondary domains are you involved in
4. How will you assess your level of domain knowledge (your ability to make sense of problem data and solution data as picked up by your senses (eyes, ears, etc.) and make situational judgments and decisions around what results to go after and how?

You don't need to be a 'graduate' to develop domain expertise, you can, and should, develop it through work experience

Not everyone needs to be a domain expert but some level of domain awareness is necessary to perform in most roles.

When we approach domain knowledge in the context of intentionality, purposefulness, and accountability, we will naturally encounter gaps between desired and actual results that clearly indicate we do not know enough to understand what can be achieved (possible solutions to the problem), what can be achieved in this context (taking into account contextual variables) and what actions to take to achieve the desired results.

In responding to these gaps, if we are able to successfully solve the problem, then it means we developed the necessary level of domain knowledge. In this way, our domain knowledge develops in response to the domains we need to operate in (primary and secondary) and the complexity of the problems we need to solve in those domains.

This approach to developing domain expertise is based on real work experiences and thus is very different from formal educational approaches. I believe job experiences naturally lend themselves to this approach but with the fundamental requirement of intentionality, purposefulness, and accountability.

It is possible for someone with limited formal education to develop expertise in particular domains of practice that match doctoral qualification levels without attending any traditional or formal academic program. The equivalent academic track obviously will be less about conducting academic research and will be more practice-based in the manner that already formally exists for some professional practice areas.

In summary...

When you think about domain expertise, don't think about school or education or qualifications, instead, think about your ability to make sense of the data your senses perceive in situations you encounter, your ability to make decisions about what is going on, what can be achieved and what you can do to achieve it.

Remember that the questions you ask require and demonstrate your current level of domain knowledge and the answers you get and are able to effectively use represent your increasing level of domain knowledge.

So, whether you got the knowledge from formal education or training programs or from asking questions as a result of the experiences of work, trying to make decisions and take actions, the ultimate value of domain knowledge is how it helps you define and achieve your meaningful, desired results.

In the next two posts, I will go into more details about activities and then competency and these will provide additional elements that help make sense of the experiences in roles and increase understanding of the inherent value of these experiences.

See What Domains of Practice Look Like in A Typical Organisational Structure

Link to the Career Optimiser Web Application

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