Traditionally we’ve separated hard skills or technical skills and soft skills. What we hope is that if we teach them separately people will figure out how to use them together. Unfortunately, this seldom happens.
I had a long discussion with a technical college that is well known for their competency based education. What they say is that they teach people how to fix a water heater but they end up with very poor skills in dealing with homeowners. This is true for automechanics as well. They can fix a transmission but can’t explain to a customer why it’s going to cost them a $1000.
The key is that you have to teach them together and practice all the situations were technical people have to interact with others. It’s the reason you have to start working on bedside manner with doctors in med school.
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