Recently over a very serious business lunch, the matter of grading came up in regards to karate, I suggested in one of those “A-ha” moments, that the same principle could be applied to staff training.

You see the person I was lunching with is a karate ‘nut’ and mentioned his new staff member was like a while belt and he, is like a green belt (a much higher grade), she knows little about his business, he knows lots.

So the idea came that he could use that to build a foundation for the staff training and make a series of clear distinctions at each level of training as the staff member’s competency grew with what they learnt and practiced the basic skills to build proficiency.

In simple terms the idea would be to use a system that followed the colours of Karate ranking. now to save confusion (as there are lots of Karate ranking systems and styles) lets go for white as the beginner and as we  move through the spectrum the aim is to get to black, highly competent and very proficient at the business.

so.

white

yellow

green

blue

purple

red

brown

black

That gives you 8 levels, if  you want more you can add a coloured strip to each “belt” or “colour” so a white belt with a red or yellow tip would mean the basics have been taught, the person operates within the basic constraints and is ready to be “graded” or tested on the skills taught at this level.

A plain coloured belt means the person is in the process of learning the tasks and skills at that level and are competent in the level below.

So all that remains is to figure out what the tasks are at each  level and set in place the training and then assessing of each task at each level!

Stumble it!