Levels of Mastery

I'm at an incredible conference this week. It is all about Competency Based Education.

I could probably write a whole book about why I think CBE is one of the best models out there for community colleges and higher education for a wide variety of careers. I also believe this is an incredible model for Talent Development within organizations too.

Here's a super quick summary.

Competency-Based Education (CBE) is a learning approach where students advance based on their ability to demonstrate mastery of specific skills or knowledge, rather than on time spent in class or credit hours.

It’s designed to ensure that learners acquire the practical skills and competencies needed in their field by focusing on what they can actually do, not just what they know.

If we relate this to the post education world- imagine if employees advance in their careers based on their ability to demonstrate mastery of specifics skills or knowledge, rather than years of experience.

For the purpose of today's newsletter, I just want to focus on one particular part of this educational philosophy that really resonates with my own philosophy around career development.

• Mastery Based Progression: Learners move forward only when they can demonstrate mastery. There’s no set pace, so learners may progress more quickly or slowly based on their learning needs.

Yesterday, I learned how to map out these learning paths from the leading experts in CBE.

Lets just say it is easier said than done.

What is Mastery anyway? How does one define Mastery? What are the different levels of Mastery? What are the performance indicators?

Pause and ask yourself these questions.

In our breakout teams, we learned that many stakeholders will have difference of opinions here. Especially when we had to start identifying the most important skillsets and behaviors one needs to master for a given career path.

To learn the process, we focused on the "Team Player" skillset.

We see "team player" in all sorts of job postings. Managers always say they want employees that are team players. But what does that even mean? How do we even teach this skill? And how would we know when someone achieves mastery in that particular skill?

In our workshop, we focused on a three step "Levels of Mastery" and painfully collaborated and deliberated the demonstratable performance indicators of being a team player at each level. Here's just a few examples:

Level 1 - Developing:

• Can describe the characteristics of healthy teams
• Shares ideas when asked and is willing to listen to others
• Avoids Conflict in team settings

Level 2 - Developed:

• Meets deadlines and responsibilities and attends meetings
• Articulates accurately team goals, standards, and expectations
• Offers feedback to others and receives feedback openly

Level 3- Highly Developed:

• Consistently recognizes and supports team goals over individual goals
• Provides enthusiastic, creative energy and ideas to team
• Collaboratively seeks to resolve conflict professionally

I can promise you, creating these lists of demonstratable performance indicators is not easy. The next step is even harder... figuring out how to assess these behaviors formatively and summatively.

And because this process is hard, most institutions and employers just take the easy route. Most just go with a simple 2-step Level of Mastery: Competent or Not Competent. Pass or Fail.

I truly believe that is why we have a MAJOR SKILL GAP issue across most industries. Most institutions and employers are complacent with employees being "competent" enough to do the job. Very few organizations take the time and effort to help people achieve mastery.

Some companies may have 3-step levels. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. Apprentice, Novice, Master. Although most keep these levels at the entire job level, not the individual skills needed for the job. You can see these levels can be almost superficial if they are not very clearly defined.

At Interplay Learning, we are exploring a 5-step Mastery level for our skilled trades career development platform. Introduced, Familiar, Applied, Proficient, and Mastered. The learner would progress through this journey in a variety of relevant discrete skills needed for their given profession.

And at the "Top 10% Club" (my passion project), my mission is to help inspire and guide people to rise to the top 10% of their field. My simple evaluation metric is to rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 of a given skillset. In a way, that is a 10-step level of Mastery... 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 lol.

After diving deep into CBE, I've realized that my 1-10 rating system is a bit too simple. It needs more context. I need to help people CLEARLY define what the demonstratable performance indicators are at various points along the career growth journey.

I am SOO EXCITED to show you what I've learned!

With all of that background, lets get into today's lesson.

IDENTIFY THE DEMONSTRATABLE PERFORMANCE INDICATORS OF A PARTICULAR SKILL YOU WANT TO MASTER.

Last weeks article was a great example of a skill I want to master, so we will continue on with that example. You can check out last weeks article here .

I want to achieve mastery in "creating engaging, short-form thought leadership videos"

But how will I know when I've achieved mastery?

What are the levels along the way?

What are the demonstratable performance indicators?

A great strategy here is to start with AI to start building the list. So here is my prompt.

ChatGPT Prompt #1: I want to create a 3-step level of mastery as I progress from novice to mastery with the skillset of "creating engaging thought leadership videos". For each level, I want 3 demonstratable performance indicators in order to track and evaluate my competency.

ChatGPT Response:

Creating a structured path from novice to mastery will help you build confidence, track progress, and refine your video skills. Here’s a three-step mastery framework, with performance indicators for each level:

Level 1: Novice

Focus: Understanding the basics of video creation, building comfort in front of the camera, and learning how to engage an audience.

Performance Indicators:

1. Consistent Content Creation: Demonstrates the ability to create and post videos consistently (e.g., one per week), focusing on developing a regular posting routine.
2. Audience Retention: Achieves at least a 30% average watch time across videos, showing initial competency in holding viewer attention.
3. Clear Messaging: Delivers a concise message within 1-2 minutes, ensuring the main point is understandable and doesn’t rely on excessive editing.

Level 2: Proficient

Focus: Refining storytelling techniques, experimenting with formats, and using editing to enhance engagement.

Performance Indicators:

1. Increased Engagement Rate: Attains a 10% or higher engagement rate (likes, comments, shares) per video, indicating deeper viewer interaction and resonating content.
2. Improved Retention Metrics: Reaches a 50% average watch time by refining hooks, pacing, and structuring content to maintain interest through to the end.
3. Effective Use of Visuals and Editing: Uses captions, transitions, or visual aids consistently and effectively in each video, enhancing clarity and viewer engagement without distraction.

Level 3: Mastery

Focus: Delivering highly engaging, impactful content that establishes you as a thought leader, consistently reaching and inspiring your target audience.

Performance Indicators:

1. High Viewer Retention and Completion Rate: Achieves a 70% or higher average watch time, demonstrating mastery in crafting content that holds attention from start to finish.
2. Audience Growth and Conversion: Consistently gains new followers/subscribers or meets conversion goals (e.g., CTA responses), indicating that viewers find the content valuable enough to return or act on.
3. Consistent Positive Feedback and Engagement: Receives thoughtful comments and discussions on videos, with qualitative feedback that highlights your content’s relevance, authority, and impact on the audience.

This progression will allow you to grow and refine your skills systematically, from establishing a solid foundation to creating high-impact, professional-level thought leadership content.

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Can you see how this is incredibly more effective than me just being "competent" or "not competent" at creating thought leadership videos?

Imagine what we can do with our careers if we get laser focused on achieving mastery in the exact skills that matter most to our employers.

Now that I have very clearly defined performance indicators, I can train and develop exactly towards these metrics over the next 90 days. I'm as excited as ever to rise to the top 10% in this particular skill!

Lets get into action!

ACTION TIME:

1. Pick a skill you want to master.
2. Use ChatGPT to define levels of mastery for that skill. Here's the prompt to use: I want to create a 3-step level of mastery as I progress from novice to mastery with the skillset of (insert your skill here). For each level, I want 3 demonstratable performance indicators in order to track and evaluate my competency.
3. Do you lead a team? What skills would you like them to master? How can you use the above prompt to better define what the journey of mastery looks like for the top skills needed?

In next weeks article, I will provide the framework for building 90-day learning paths towards these demonstrational performance indicators!

As always, I appreciate the moments you've spent with this article today! We as leaders need to inspire growth and learning in the workplace, now more than ever. And it starts with leading by example. I promise to continue to provide fresh, actionable content week after week- thank you for subscribing! Hit the share button if you think someone in your network may find value in this article! Thanks again.

Your Friend,

Dan