This program discusses the Critical Skills from the perspective of the Teacher.

It is no easy task to teach skills – particularly the critical skills. Simple lecturing from the front of the classroom without engaging the students in active participation simply doesn’t do it. Charlie Jett discusses the ways that teachers can actually teach the critical skills through engaging the students in ways other than sitting and listening endlessly to the teacher talking. It takes work – and, in itself, teaching the critical skills is a LEARNED skill for the teacher. But it can – and SHOULD – be done.

We now live in an ever-changing world where significant and fast-paced developments in technology, worldwide competition and demands for workplace know-how require us to adapt to these challenges simply in order to survive.

Charlie Jett discusses the Continuous Education skill – the ability to constantly learn new techniques, master changing technologies, keep up with the changes in an industry, and the like.

The time management skill is simple in concept but it is often a struggle for us all. The skill enables an individual to determine which tasks are most important — to set priorities — and to devote the appropriate amount of time to accomplish these tasks at a high level of quality.

Another way to look at the skill is as Charlie Jett describes: You go to work in the morning and you know you have ten things to do. Four of these are critical . . . but YOU have to determine which four of the ten are in that category. You do your best work on those tasks and, for the others, you do the very best you can do . . . given the time you have left.

The Interpersonal skill is not the skill you use to make friends. It’s the skill that, by using it, results in other people such as your teammates consider you as a valuable asset to the team. It’s your way of contributing value to the whole and, in a sense, is an important justification for your compensation. In this short program, Charlie Jett discusses the Interpersonal skill and gives examples of its use.

The Technology skill is the skill one uses to SELECT the appropriate technology solution to address a problem. It is NOT the skill which one uses to create technology – such as to design an electronic circuit board – but the skill to USE APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY. Charlie Jett discusses the Technology skill and gives examples of its use.

The Analysis skill is the process of taking information that has been VERIFIED as being true, developing FINDINGS from that information (what the information means or tells us), drawing CONCLUSIONS based on the findings which, in turn, are based on accurate information, and developing RECOMMENDATIONS about what course(s) of action to take. Note that FALSE INFORMATION can lead to conclusions that are either true or untrue – you can’t tell.

The same is for information that is based on FAITH – or unverified information. With such unverified information, you can draw whatever conclusion you want to draw. That is the danger these days in politics . . . . and, for some, poses a problem for religion. The primary method used is “P implies Q” or P → Q. It can also be stated, “If P then Q.”  P is often called the “premise” and Q is called the “conclusion.” Q can be assumed to be true if P is true. But if P is NOT TRUE, then you might as well dream up any conclusion you want.

Improper use of the Analysis skill, such as deliberately using false information or untrue premises (i.e., LIES) and then drawing conclusions from those – and then recommending action based on the false conclusions IS THE GREATEST DANGER TO OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC!

The information skill has changed over the past three decades.

What once was a skill to seek out and find relevant information to apply to analysis now has become the need for sorting out from literally tons of information to separate the relevant from the irrelevant and the truth from false. Good analysis depends on accurate and true information. Charlie Jett describes the information gathering process.

The production skill is quite simple. It’s the skill of taking something from the “Idea stage” to the “Final Product” stage.

It can be as simple as a group of high school kids having an idea for a float in a homecoming parade to solving the global warming crisis. The skill is the same no matter the complexity of the idea to final product, although the complexity can vary widely.

The communications skill is the most important skill you can learn.

Basically it is the ability to get ideas out of your head and into the heads of others through reading, writing, listening and speaking. It is a LEARNED SKILL and should be practiced early during any educational experience including K-6.

This is the introductory episode of “All About Skills” where Charlie Jett describes the eight critical skills, where they came from, how they were derived, and why they are important.

Subsequent episodes will discuss each of the eight critical skills and, following that, he will discuss the skills from the different perspectives of such individuals as teachers, career-minded individuals, students, business managers, executive recruiters, career coaches, politicians, and many more.

This content is based on the book, WANTED: Eight Critical Skills You Need To Succeed by Charlie Jett. Click HERE if you want to go to the Amazon page for the book (among others).