Welcome to the Emotional Connectivity Podcast of Talent Management Academy!
’Resistance is futile’ – because Rolf provided you with information in his last podcast how you can easily learn and do something else by being aware and observing yourself and directing your focus.
If we focus today on learning let me state first: Snap your fingers – Abracadabra – and done…new skills suddenly appear or new insight is absorbed. This is what we all would like to have, wouldn’t we?! Here is the bad news: I won’t do magic for you, but I can give you some interesting information about the learning journey to the master level.
„4 stages of competence development“
In the 70ies Noel Burch presented a learning model explaining the stages we have to climb when learning. Because it is a journey from the first insight to the completely unconscious and nearly automated master act.
The first stage is the state of unconscious incompetence. This stage is summed up by the phrase “I don’t know what I don’t know“. At this stage you don’t know yet that there is something to learn as for example driving a car. As a little child you sit in the car together with your parents and you are not aware at all that driving is something that you can learn.
The second stage is the state of conscious incompetence. Here you stand at the very beginning of your learning curve and you become aware of the skill and that you’re not very good at it. This is perhaps what motivates you with a belief of “here I want to be better” or “I want to be able to do that”. Taking again the example of driving the little child then reaches puberty and observes everything that has to be taken care of and done when sitting behind the wheel, but would not be able yet to drive on his/her own.
At the third stage you experience the state of conscious competence. Here you need to concentrate yet so that the driving beginner may change gears without noise or drive uphill without killing the engine. Because we have to practice so that behavior patterns are absorbed to the point of finally reaching the
state of unconscious competence. At this stage satisfaction becomes apparent because we drive on autopilot now. We can listen to the radio, eat a sandwich or have a phone call without reflecting on the individual sequences for driving.
What does this mean for you? If you learn something new, then keep in mind at what kind of stage you actually are. It doesn’t make sense to compare yourself with others or especially with people who have been proficient in this capability longer than you. Each individual has her/his own pace of learning – thus patience, persistent practice and development feedback are necessary above all. By the way, Rolf will give you some impulses to the feedback topic next week.
Happy learning!