Customer Reviews

Human Capability: A Study of Individual Potential and Its Application

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Dr. Jaques is re-writing our understanding of the human mind and how to use it best. Forget IQ, Meyers-Briggs, and the other flim-flam out there. This book offers us the hope that we can work to our potential without overload, balance our task output and spiritual needs at work, and organize our companies as effectively as possible, without sacrificing our humanity. So far every criticism I've seen leveled at Jaques has proven baseless. High level writing may put off some, but this is great research work.

Elliott Jaques devised a system for analyzing executive ability based upon an individual's time horizon--the maximum period of time in the future toward which his/her work activities were aimed in their performance. He reached this conclusion during extensive, longitudinal, empirical studies in England. His series of books reflect his elaboration and extension of this finding. He worked, for a time, with Dr. Owen Jacobs of the U.S. Army (and then the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, ICAF). Jaques prior, groundbreaking book, "Requisite Organization" is more pictorial than "Executive Leadership" or this volume. While the present work may be oriented more towards human resource personnel, it is also useful to practicing executives. After reading it, I bought a copy (and of "Executive Leadership" too) and loaned it to my boss! I wish more bosses would read Jaques' works--and carefully at that. The charts provided are engaging and thought-provoking. The more extensive, "Executive Leadership" preceded this book in sequence. Jaques wrote "Human Capability" with is wife and publisher: Kathryn Cason. It is a fine sequel to "Executive Leadership", adding some additional perspectives on the ways people perceive and think and it completes the time-horizon charts that Jaques developed over time and published in this fine series. These books are most strongly recommended for serious students and practitioners of management as well as human resource professionals. They go far in attempting to move management into management science.

This book presents the results of a three year study by Jaques and Cason, providing a major breakthrough in understanding human capability, intelligence, and development. An outcome of this study is further development of managerial practices to match people with roles and develop training and development programs. This is a highly interesting and informative volume that will be of significant value to all HR professionals whose agenda includes HRD and the cultivation of an organization's human capital. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates and HRconsultant.com InfoCenter.

There is a brilliant central point presented in this book, about how to identify management talent. The idea is that everyone has a natural, built-in growth trajectory for their mind's ability to process complexity. The more horse-power, the better the ability to project into the future, and thus guide an enterprise.

Of course there is more to being a good leader than being a good strategist (such as having people skills) but this ability to handle complexity piece is key.

Jacques give a specific model for looking at how to handle this complexity. It considers two scales on how people think about challenges. They are as follows:

TYPE OF MENTAL PROCESS
1. Declarative (disparate points presented)
2. Cumulative (a collection of related points presented)
3. Serial (a then b then c reasoning)
4. Parallel (systems thinking)

ORDERS OF COMPLEXITY OF INFORMATION PROCESSED
A. Concrete verbal (things)
B. Symbolic verbal (intangibles)
C. Abstract conceptual (ideas)
D. Universals (big picture; applied philosophy)

If you put these two scales together then you get a trajectory. It starts with people starting out at a young age with a Concrete--Declarative approach. Then they would over time develop to Concrete--Cumulative, Concrete--Serial, Concrete--Parallel. The next phase would be Symbolic--Declarative, Symbolic--Cumulative and so on, creating 16 levels.

Here's the key point: Jacques says that everyone has a life trajectory about how high of a level of complexity that are going to achieve. And he says it's built-in, thus isn't much to do to improve that trajectory. So for example if a company identify where someone is on the 16 steps at age 30, they can predict where they'll be at age 50, and have a sense for their leadership potential.

This are big, bold ideas about the development of leadership skills. Absolutely worth checking out.

The Fundation for understand Mental Processing Capability and Handling Complexity. Very simple and powerfull application in everyday situations. Like 'THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE' [Peter M. Senge] this is a great book about HUMAN PRESENT AND FUTURE possibilities ... JUST READ THIS!

Once you understand and assimilate the discoveries about human capability that Jaques & Cason presents in this book a whole new world of understanding people will open up. And from that, there is no return. Your understanding of behaviour, past, present and future, hasn't been added to as adding just one more piece. You will instead have the foundation without which no people-puzzles may be completed.