# Skill Radar — Facilitator Guide

> Folder: `skill-radar` · Category: self-assessment · 6–16 people · 20 min · offline + online · print props · tool pack
> License: CC BY 4.0

Each person plots their own capability across five or six axes as a radar (spider) chart, overlays the shape the role actually needs, and targets the one spoke that falls short. The shape — not the average — is the whole point: a 3.5 average that hides a sharp gap is exactly what a single number can't show.

**How this differs from `advantage-compass`:** The Advantage Compass audits *where your time and strengths are deployed* against a personal strategy. Skill Radar audits *the shape of what you can do* against what a specific role requires. Run the compass when the direction is the question; run this radar when the capability gap is the question — usually right after a role change, before a development plan, or at the first 90 days.

## Objectives

By the end of the activity, participants will have:

1. Plotted an honest self-shape — 1–5 on five or six axes the role genuinely lives or dies by.
2. Overlaid the **target shape** the role actually requires, and seen the distance between the two polygons.
3. Committed to one concrete action on the single shortest spoke, with a dated re-plot to prove the polygon moved.

## When to use this activity

- A role has just changed — new hire, promotion, internal transfer — and "what should I get good at" needs a picture, not a wish list.
- Development conversations keep collapsing into one confidence number ("I'm fine overall"), which hides where investment should actually go.
- You need a first 90-day plan for onboarding, or a shared frame for a team capability review — without grading people against each other.

## Setup

**Clock:** twenty minutes end to end. Give it thirty if every person writes their own axes from scratch — the axis quality decides the read quality.

**Space:** one desk or tile per person; enough wall for taping the team overlay if you run the whole-room variation.

**Materials per person:**

| Item | Source |
|---|---|
| 1 × blank radar grid (five or six spokes) | `skill-radar-prop-cards.pdf` print page, or draw the spokes on plain A4 |
| The six card faces — choose-axes, self-rate, plot, target-shape, the-gap, one-invest | `skill-radar-prop-cards.pdf` |
| 2 × pen, different colours | one for the self-shape, one for the target shape |
| 1 × blank card | `skill-radar-prop-cards.pdf` — for naming the one action and the re-plot date |

**Grouping:** 6–16 people assessing a shared role (or running it solo on a role they hold). Below 6 works fine as a pure self-assessment.

**Roles:** everyone plots their own radar; you keep the axes role-specific, protect the "read the shape, not the average" rule, and end on one spoke — not all of them.

## How to run it

| Time | Phase | Facilitator does | Participants do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–4 | Axes | "Name 5–6 capability axes this role lives by — not generic 'communication'." Read one bad and one good example aloud. | Write the axes onto the spokes; swap generic words for the exact skills the role demands |
| 4–10 | Plot | Keep them honest: 1–5, evidence behind each mark. "Read the shape before you read any single number." | Rate themselves on each spoke, connect the points |
| 10–15 | Target | Hand the target-shape card. "Second colour now: what does this role actually require?" | Sketch the needed shape over their own polygon; measure the distance |
| 15–20 | Invest | Force the single spoke: "Not all of them — the one." Names and dates on every action. | Mark the spoke furthest from target; write one concrete action and a re-plot date |

Then run the debrief — see `skill-radar-debrief.md`.

## The card

The six faces step the run in order — choose-axes, self-rate, plot, target-shape, the-gap, one-invest — so a person working solo can read the next move off the deck instead of from a facilitator. The grid keeps the spokes evenly spaced, because a lopsided template distorts the shape more than an honest rating ever will. The gap and invest faces exist to stop the classic failure: a plotted radar nobody converts into one dated action becomes wall art.

## Failure modes

1. **Everyone rates 3s across the board.** A flat safe circle means they're avoiding the read. Rescue: "which spoke, if it stayed a 3, would actually cost you this year?" — force the shape.
2. **Twelve axes.** An unreadable radar hides the one gap behind noise again. Rescue: cap at five or six — the axes the role genuinely lives or dies by.
3. **It becomes a ranking of people.** Rescue: re-anchor to the target shape — every radar is compared to the role's needs, never to a neighbour's polygon.
4. **The average gets read as the grade.** "3.5 overall" is exactly what this tool exists to destroy. Rescue: cover the numbers and describe the shape in one sentence.

## Variations

- **Online:** a shared whiteboard with the spoke grid; each person plots on their own copy, then all polygons go up at once. The overlay of shapes is the debrief material.
- **Pair or manager overlay:** have a trusted peer draw the same person's radar; the mismatch between the two shapes is the feedback conversation, without blame.
- **Team radar:** plot every member on the same axes; the collective outline shows where the team is strong and which single spoke nobody can cover.
- **Onboarding:** run it on day one against the role's target shape — it becomes the first 90-day plan, one spoke at a time.

## Facilitation notes

- Read the shape, not the average — say it before the first plot and repeat it at the compare. A spiky polygon with one short spoke is a finding; a smooth "3.5 everywhere" is usually unexamined.
- Rate against what the role requires, not against colleagues. A radar is a self-versus-requirement picture, not a league table.
- The action written at minute 15–20 must survive a week: one move, one owner (the person themselves), one re-plot date.

## Put it on the wall

Print `skill-radar-activity-poster.pdf` (A3) to keep the two rules — read the shape, target the one spoke — in view while people plot.

## Props in this folder

- `skill-radar-prop-cards.pdf` — poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides): the six step faces, a blank radar grid, blank action card, branded backs
- `skill-radar-guide.md` — this run sheet
- `skill-radar-debrief.md` — the debrief questions and the failure modes of the debrief
- `skill-radar-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this run sheet + the debrief, bound as one A4 document with bookmarks
- `skill-radar-activity-poster.pdf` — the whole tool on one A3 wall sheet: the run, the two rules, the watch-outs
- `skill-radar-start-here.md` — one page, thirty seconds, then print and go
- `SKILL.md` — machine-readable manifest for AI agents
- `*-Letter.pdf` — US Letter editions of the print documents

## Agent version

Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the cards, the debrief and this run sheet with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`). The paper version needs nothing but a printed grid, two pens and the deck.