(Part five in a seven-part series about careers in Emergency Management.)
It's one thing to be competent in performance, and quite another to be a master in a profession. What's the difference?
Competency can be achieved. Mastery is conferred.
Way back in the 13th century, the time of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, becoming a member of a guild raised both your social status and income potential. There was a process to follow - the "apprentice-journeyman-master" model that still exists in education and many trades.
When the apprentice learned the rudiments of the trade, he progressed to journeyman. The journeyman had to produce a 'masterpiece' - using their own tools, time and materials - that would satisfy the master of the guild. THEN, the rest of the guild voted on whether to allow the journeyman to be promoted to a member of the guild and a master in his own right.
Competencies in emergency management can be attaned with the Training/Education/Experience Triad. Mastery, on the other hand, means being at the "top of your game", already competent in the basics, creative and innovative in applying them, a leader in the profession, mentoring the next generation, and - of course - the recognition of your peers.
In an earlier blog, I mentioned the "Top Ten Competencies for Professional Emergency Management", written by Dr. Wayne Blanchard in 2005. It included things like understanding the emergency management framework, management, integration, context and standards. These are all tasks and functions required of a master.
So, how do you attain mastery in emergency management? There are 635 Certified Emergency Managers (CEM's) who have gone through an arduous process to demonstrate that mastery.
What does emergency management mastery look like? It looks a lot like Kay Goss, CEM, former Associate Director of FEMA's Training, Preparedness and Exercise Division from 1994 through 2001 and Founder of the FEMA Higher Education Program; an adjuct professor and visiting lecturer for several different higher education campuses and serves on the Advisory Councils for several others; Chair or member on numerous professional committees and taskforces, author, keynote speaker and President of the Foundation for Higher Education Accreditation.
Every day, I challenge myself to match the level of mastery.
That being said, mastery doesn't necessarily encompass the whole body of knowledge. Sometimes, it is a speciality - like alert and warning, or GIS, or crisis communication.
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