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For much of my career, I worked in the non-profit sector and then moved to spend nearly a decade developing leaders in the international development space. In both those arenas, “capacity building” was a hot topic.

International development dollars spent on infrastructure, for example, were insufficient because countries and local institutions often lacked the ongoing ability to maintain and improve what was created. Funders of nonprofits recognized that the organizations needed resources for things that weren’t programs, services, or direct overhead – they needed stronger leadership and governance, fundraising and financial systems, evaluation, planning, and staff development. Capacity building investments looked beyond immediate client outcomes to initiatives that make longer-term outcomes possible, and capacity became the ability to produce results consistently over time.

Importantly, while some dictionaries and thesauruses suggest competence as a synonym for capacity, there are meaningful distinctions between them. Competence is stable and important for predictable, even complicated things. We want competence from our doctors, drivers, athletes – all demonstrating repeatable skills. Capacity is dynamic, developmental, and needed in complexity. It includes not only the ability to demonstrate skills today but also abilities to grow and adapt to meet future demands.

Capacity is possibility-oriented, suggesting that organizations – and people – have potential that can be developed. That development is complementary, because developing a leader’s capacity in isolation from their organization risks being incomplete, and building organizational capacities without ensuring its people are ready to leverage them limits success.

The positivity of capacity can feel exciting. It certainly resonates with me, because I am drawn to opportunities and connections more than deficits and gaps. I say, “kudos!” to the organizations and individuals who see the value in expanding from only developing competencies to also building capacities, but I offer a word of caution, too.

There is great promise in the increasing focus on capacity and capacity building across sectors and industries, yet that popularity is the very thing that can dilute it and cause it to become another fuzzy concept that fails to be actionable. Before you jump on the “building capacity” bandwagon, get really clear about building capacity for what. Is capacity needed for decision-making, innovation, collaboration, execution, or something else? What is the specific capability (or capabilities) that needs strengthening? Or, if you don’t know that yet, what is the adaptive challenge you are facing? You can work from there to determine the needed capacities.

If you can get past the shift in emphasis from delivering only outputs to delivering enduring capability, you are ready for capacity building. Build it wisely.