Summary
- To effectively leverage soft skills, soft tools are necessary.
- These are tools like templates and checklists.
- They are not hard tools like hardware or software.
- Soft skills are not simple enough to be covered by hard tools alone (though engineers might prefer hard tools).
- Creating soft tools is challenging, so here are seven perspectives to get started:
- This is the Seven Lists Principle, consisting of the following seven:
Task Span
Trigger Question
Check Label
Fill
Background
In today’s digital age, there is a tendency to see software creation as the ultimate solution. However, only a small portion of phenomena can be translated into software. If software were enough, there would be no need for the term soft skills.
However, discussions about soft skills tend to become abstract. For engineers, they are “non-technical” and “not concrete,” creating a double disadvantage. Just seeing the title can trigger an allergic reaction.
So what should we do? Create “immediately usable forms of something” like templates and checklists. We refer to these as tools.
If this sounds unclear, think of actual tools like software and hardware as hard tools, and operational, language-based deliverables like templates and checklists as soft tools. Soft tools are necessary to utilize soft skills.
So, how do we create these soft tools?
In essence, one must create things like templates and checklists, but even when told this, it’s hard to find a starting point.
Therefore, we introduce some perspectives for getting started.
The Seven Lists Principle
The Seven Lists Principle is a guideline suggesting that it’s useful to categorize soft tools into seven types.
Task Span
Trigger Question
Check Label
Fill
When creating a soft tool, first think about which of these seven categories it should fall into. Even if it doesn’t fit perfectly, you might find a hint.
While the word “list” is used, it doesn’t have to be a list. It can be a matrix, map, or framework—anything else works. The name or visualization method is not important. “List” is merely used here to mean a collection of elements.
Let’s go through the details of each.
1: Task List
- What is it?
- Reader’s Expectation
- Expect readers to follow it.
- Examples
- SOPs and other procedure manuals fall under this category.
2: Span List
- What is it?
- A list of time-based units (things with a temporal length).
- Elements can also be placed within the time units (classification function).
- Reader’s Expectation
- Expect readers to understand the overview and current status of the time periods.
- Examples
- Roadmaps, schedules, WBS.
3: Trigger List
- What is it?
- A miscellaneous list of things that might spark ideas.
- Reader’s Expectation
- Expect it to assist in idea generation.
- Each item can be used or not, and interpreted freely.
- Examples
- GTD® Trigger List, Osborne’s Checklist, SCAMPER method.
4: Question List
- What is it?
- A list of questions, particularly open questions.
- Reader’s Expectation
- Expect readers to answer them one by one.
- By answering, they can gain insights, especially confronting their “own will” and making decisions.
- Examples
- Interviews and surveys in general.
5: Check List
- What is it?
- A list of items answerable with Yes/No.
- Reader’s Expectation
- Expect the determination of whether specified items are Yes or No.
- Examples
6: Label List
- What is it?
- A list of classification items (labels) to assign to a subject.
- Readers select labels from this list and assign them to the subject.
- There are one-label-per-subject (category method) or n-labels-per-subject (tag method).
- Reader’s Expectation
- Expect them to use the specified classification items.
- Examples
- GitHub Issues labels, tags used in document systems.
7: Fill List
- What is it?
- A list of blanks for the reader to fill in.
- It’s essentially a template.
- Reader’s Expectation
- Expect them to fill in the blanks.
- Examples