The Conscious Competence Ladder
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
When we find that we don't know something important, we're often motivated to learn more. However if we're blissfully unaware of our ignorance, there's little we can do about it.
One of the first steps on the journey to acquiring new skills is therefore to be aware of what you don't know. This discovery can be uncomfortable, as can be the experience of not being very good at what you're trying to do (as you won't be, when you first start to learn.)
The Conscious Competence Ladder is a popular and intuitive approach
(attributed to many different possible originators) that helps us
manage our own emotions during a sometimes dispiriting learning
process. More than this, it helps us to be more in touch with the
emotions of the people we are teaching, so we can better coach them
through the learning process.
Explaining the Model
According to this approach, consciousness is the
first step towards gaining knowledge. To learn new skills and to gain
knowledge you need to be conscious of what you do and do not know.
Next, skills, or competence, is your ability to do things. You may be highly
competent in one area, but have no skill in another. Your skill
level will depend on the task or job at hand.
The idea is that as you build expertise in a new area, you move from
"unconsciously unskilled" to "consciously unskilled" and then to
"consciously skilled", finally reaching "unconsciously skilled."
These are explained below, and this "ladder" of learning is shown in
figure 1.
Reproduced with permission from Gordon Training International .
Level 1 – Unconsciously Unskilled
(You Don't Know that You Don't Know)
At this level you are blissfully ignorant: You have a complete lack
of knowledge and skills in the subject in question. On top of this,
you are unaware of this lack of skill, and your confidence may
therefore far exceed your abilities.
Level 2 – Consciously Unskilled
(You Know that You Don't Know)
At this level you find that there are skills you need to learn, and
you may be shocked to discover that there are others who are much
more competent than you. As you realize that your ability is limited,
your confidence drops. You go through an uncomfortable period as you
learn these new skills when others are much more competent and
successful than you are.
Level 3 – Consciously Skilled
(You Know that You Know)
At this level you acquire the new skills and knowledge. You put your
learning into practice and you gain confidence in carrying out the
tasks or jobs involved. You are aware of your new skills and work on
refining them.
You are still concentrating on the performance of these activities,
but as you get ever-more practice and experience, these become
increasingly automatic.
Level 4 – Unconsciously Skilled
(You Don't Know that You Know – It Just Seems Easy!)
At this level your new skills become habits, and you perform the task
without conscious effort and with automatic ease. This is the peak of
your confidence and ability.
Tip:
Some people prefer to think of this as a matrix (hence "Conscious Competence Matrix" or "Learning Matrix") with Unskilled/Skilled or Incompetent/Competent on the horizontal axis, and Unconscious/Conscious on the vertical axis.
Use the approach you prefer.
Using the Tool
The Conscious Competence Ladder helps us in two ways: It gives us
reassurance when we need it, and it helps us coach others through a
sometimes difficult learning process.
During the Consciously Unskilled phase, we have the reassurance that
while things are difficult and frustrating right now, things will get
much better in the future. And when we're at the stage of Unconsciously Skilled, the model reminds us to value the skills we have so
painstakingly acquired.
As an approach to coaching others, it reminds us that people may be
moving through these steps as they learn the new skills we're trying
to teach them:
Unconsciously Unskilled: At the beginning of the process, they may be unaware of their own lack of skills, and may need to be made gently aware of how much they need to learn.
Consciously Unskilled: During this stage, you'll need to provide plenty of encouragement, tolerate mistakes appropriately, and do what you can to help people improve.
Consciously Skilled: At this stage you need to keep people focused on effective performance of the task, and give plenty of opportunities for them to get practice.
Unconsciously Skilled: Although this is the ideal state, you'll need to make sure that people avoid complacency, and stay abreast of their fields. You may also need to remind people how difficult it was to reach this state, so that they are tolerant with people at the Consciously Unskilled stage!
Tags:
Learning Skills, Skills
One of the first steps on the journey to acquiring new skills is therefore to be aware of what you don't know. This discovery can be uncomfortable, as can be the experience of not being very good at what you're trying to do (as you won't be, when you first start to learn.)
The Conscious Competence Ladder is a popular and intuitive approach
(attributed to many different possible originators) that helps us
manage our own emotions during a sometimes dispiriting learning
process. More than this, it helps us to be more in touch with the
emotions of the people we are teaching, so we can better coach them
through the learning process.
Explaining the Model
According to this approach, consciousness is the
first step towards gaining knowledge. To learn new skills and to gain
knowledge you need to be conscious of what you do and do not know.
Next, skills, or competence, is your ability to do things. You may be highly
competent in one area, but have no skill in another. Your skill
level will depend on the task or job at hand.
The idea is that as you build expertise in a new area, you move from
"unconsciously unskilled" to "consciously unskilled" and then to
"consciously skilled", finally reaching "unconsciously skilled."
These are explained below, and this "ladder" of learning is shown in
figure 1.
Reproduced with permission from Gordon Training International .
Level 1 – Unconsciously Unskilled
(You Don't Know that You Don't Know)
At this level you are blissfully ignorant: You have a complete lack
of knowledge and skills in the subject in question. On top of this,
you are unaware of this lack of skill, and your confidence may
therefore far exceed your abilities.
Level 2 – Consciously Unskilled
(You Know that You Don't Know)
At this level you find that there are skills you need to learn, and
you may be shocked to discover that there are others who are much
more competent than you. As you realize that your ability is limited,
your confidence drops. You go through an uncomfortable period as you
learn these new skills when others are much more competent and
successful than you are.
Level 3 – Consciously Skilled
(You Know that You Know)
At this level you acquire the new skills and knowledge. You put your
learning into practice and you gain confidence in carrying out the
tasks or jobs involved. You are aware of your new skills and work on
refining them.
You are still concentrating on the performance of these activities,
but as you get ever-more practice and experience, these become
increasingly automatic.
Level 4 – Unconsciously Skilled
(You Don't Know that You Know – It Just Seems Easy!)
At this level your new skills become habits, and you perform the task
without conscious effort and with automatic ease. This is the peak of
your confidence and ability.
Tip:
Some people prefer to think of this as a matrix (hence "Conscious Competence Matrix" or "Learning Matrix") with Unskilled/Skilled or Incompetent/Competent on the horizontal axis, and Unconscious/Conscious on the vertical axis.
Use the approach you prefer.
Using the Tool
The Conscious Competence Ladder helps us in two ways: It gives us
reassurance when we need it, and it helps us coach others through a
sometimes difficult learning process.
During the Consciously Unskilled phase, we have the reassurance that
while things are difficult and frustrating right now, things will get
much better in the future. And when we're at the stage of Unconsciously Skilled, the model reminds us to value the skills we have so
painstakingly acquired.
As an approach to coaching others, it reminds us that people may be
moving through these steps as they learn the new skills we're trying
to teach them:
Unconsciously Unskilled: At the beginning of the process, they may be unaware of their own lack of skills, and may need to be made gently aware of how much they need to learn.
Consciously Unskilled: During this stage, you'll need to provide plenty of encouragement, tolerate mistakes appropriately, and do what you can to help people improve.
Consciously Skilled: At this stage you need to keep people focused on effective performance of the task, and give plenty of opportunities for them to get practice.
Unconsciously Skilled: Although this is the ideal state, you'll need to make sure that people avoid complacency, and stay abreast of their fields. You may also need to remind people how difficult it was to reach this state, so that they are tolerant with people at the Consciously Unskilled stage!
