Hey All,
Here's a concept for each and every person, working in the corporate world, to understand. It’s called Competency Ladder. This ladder has four steps which take you to a level where you achieve excellence in a particular work/job/field. The concept is majorly focused on new joinees.
Here are the four steps of this ladder:
Step 1: Unconscious Incompetence
Step 2: Conscious Incompetence
Step 3: Conscious Competence
Step 4: Unconscious Competence
1. Unconscious Incompetence - This is the stage where the person is not aware of his incompetence’s. We can here take an example of a person who looks at other driving the car, but does not have any idea about how it is driven. He is at a level where he is not aware of what a clutch or accelerator is.
2. Conscious Incompetence - At this stage the person becomes aware of his incompetence’s. Going back to our driving skill example, at this stage the person gets the verbal knowledge of what a gear/clutch/accelerator is used for in a car. But still if the keys are handed over to him, he can't drive the car. That's why we say it conscious incompetence, as the person is now aware of his incompetence’s.
3. Conscious Competence - Now the person reaches the third stage where he starts achieving the knowledge of a certain act/work/job and practices the act as per the knowledge gained. In our example this guy starts to learn driving and if you’ve noticed a new driver “he/she sits very consciously on the driving seat completely focused on the road, he/she would not talk to any one, if he/she has to change the gear he/she would look at the gear lever and then change it, to look at rear view mirror he/she would move the head quickly look at the mirror and the quickly start looking at road again”. All the acts would be done with extra care and attention.
4. Unconscious Competence – This is the final stage of the Competency Ladder, at this stage the person reaches the level where he does all the work in unconsciously. He achieves expertise in doing the job in such a way that he can do multiple jobs while doing this job. In our driving example, this person now drives normally. He would not look at the gear lever while changing the gear, he would now not raise his head to look at the rear view mirror he would just raise his eyes to do so, he can now talk to other people sitting along.
The point to be noticed here is that at stage 4, the person would drive the car the way he has learnt it. For example, if while learning he developed the habit of holding the steering with both hands, he may not be able to drive the car using one hand only. Or if he is asked to rest one hand on the window and hold the steering with it, he many not be able to drive. The simple reason for this is that he never learnt this style of handling the steering while driving. To learn this he’ll have to go through the Competence Ladder again all over.
Managers please try to co-relate this with the way your new team members work during first 1 month. They are at stage 3 and it takes maximum time to move to stage 4. This is the stage that would define the quality of work the employee would do in long run. So give them time to raise their skills to reach the “Unconscious Competence” stage.
Cheers!!
genuinetrainer
Gaurav Dhyani
From India, Delhi
Here's a concept for each and every person, working in the corporate world, to understand. It’s called Competency Ladder. This ladder has four steps which take you to a level where you achieve excellence in a particular work/job/field. The concept is majorly focused on new joinees.
Here are the four steps of this ladder:
Step 1: Unconscious Incompetence
Step 2: Conscious Incompetence
Step 3: Conscious Competence
Step 4: Unconscious Competence
1. Unconscious Incompetence - This is the stage where the person is not aware of his incompetence’s. We can here take an example of a person who looks at other driving the car, but does not have any idea about how it is driven. He is at a level where he is not aware of what a clutch or accelerator is.
2. Conscious Incompetence - At this stage the person becomes aware of his incompetence’s. Going back to our driving skill example, at this stage the person gets the verbal knowledge of what a gear/clutch/accelerator is used for in a car. But still if the keys are handed over to him, he can't drive the car. That's why we say it conscious incompetence, as the person is now aware of his incompetence’s.
3. Conscious Competence - Now the person reaches the third stage where he starts achieving the knowledge of a certain act/work/job and practices the act as per the knowledge gained. In our example this guy starts to learn driving and if you’ve noticed a new driver “he/she sits very consciously on the driving seat completely focused on the road, he/she would not talk to any one, if he/she has to change the gear he/she would look at the gear lever and then change it, to look at rear view mirror he/she would move the head quickly look at the mirror and the quickly start looking at road again”. All the acts would be done with extra care and attention.
4. Unconscious Competence – This is the final stage of the Competency Ladder, at this stage the person reaches the level where he does all the work in unconsciously. He achieves expertise in doing the job in such a way that he can do multiple jobs while doing this job. In our driving example, this person now drives normally. He would not look at the gear lever while changing the gear, he would now not raise his head to look at the rear view mirror he would just raise his eyes to do so, he can now talk to other people sitting along.
The point to be noticed here is that at stage 4, the person would drive the car the way he has learnt it. For example, if while learning he developed the habit of holding the steering with both hands, he may not be able to drive the car using one hand only. Or if he is asked to rest one hand on the window and hold the steering with it, he many not be able to drive. The simple reason for this is that he never learnt this style of handling the steering while driving. To learn this he’ll have to go through the Competence Ladder again all over.
Managers please try to co-relate this with the way your new team members work during first 1 month. They are at stage 3 and it takes maximum time to move to stage 4. This is the stage that would define the quality of work the employee would do in long run. So give them time to raise their skills to reach the “Unconscious Competence” stage.
Cheers!!
genuinetrainer
Gaurav Dhyani
From India, Delhi
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