Perceived performance gaps related to conducting needs assessments
Needs assessments require a set of soft skills and hard skills, as with most projects. Some hard skills include technical ability to design surveys and facilitate meetings. Soft skills require attention to detail, summarizing others inputs, reading between the lines to assess stakeholder interest/engagement. I find that in needs assessment projects soft skills have a much greater impact that the physical surveying or scheduling of a meeting. I remind myself that the information I seek is more likely to transpire if likability is obtained with the target audience. I found that being engaging in communication and taking an interest in others self discovery has high impact on the quality of the assessment. These are my focus areas in organizational or individual assessments, connecting with people to discover the need, as Dr. Rothwell states “in OD, the people are always more important than the project plan” (Rothwell, 2015).