Getting to Unconscious Competence
The path to new knowledge and changed behavior often is fraught with false steps and the experience of taking “two steps forward, one step back”. In fact, it is quite rare for new learning to take hold immediately, given the comfort we attach to the way we do things today.
In our Fit Leader’s Program ™, we teach 32 different ways to move from confusion to clarity, from fear to confidence, from frustration to effectiveness and from overwhelm to vitality. In coaching my clients to successfully adopt the positive habits that lead to sustainable leadership success, I often hear how hard it is to make change happen.
One of the secrets to successful change management is the realization that each of us must navigate four distinct phases as part of the process of implementing anything new.
We call the first phase “unconscious incompetence”. This initial stage actually precedes any new learning. When we are unconsciously incompetent, we don’t even realize we are incompetent or ineffective at something important.
Remember the saying “ignorance is bliss”? Until we become aware of the need to learn something new, we remain oblivious to any need for change.
The next phase of learning is called “conscious incompetence”. This second phase often is uncomfortable for us as we become all too aware of the need for change. At this point in the process, it becomes undeniable that we are not getting the results we want, and we begin to seek out whatever assistance is available to move us to a more desirable place.
To make serious progress, and effectively begin the change process, we actually need to start going against the grain by working consciously to do things differently. This initiates the third phase of learning, “conscious competence”, where we must stay mindful of the changes we are executing so that we do not default to the old way of doing things.
Staying consciously competent takes a lot of work and is perhaps the hardest part of the learning process. It is during this phase that we are most likely to experience a relapse by reverting back to our old way of doing things.
When we have dedicated sufficient time to practicing our new habits by remaining consciously competent for however long it takes, then and only then can we move into the fourth and final phase of the learning process which is “unconscious competence”.
When we are unconsciously competent, we don’t need to think about our new behaviors on an ongoing basis because they now come as natural to us as brushing our teeth each morning. Getting to this final phase of unconscious competence requires patience with the learning process, and an acceptance that learning new behaviors is often not an overnight accomplishment.
The good news is that all of us are unconsciously competent with regard to hundreds of behaviors and actions we undertake each day. As long as we remain focused and committed to learning new habits, and as long as we appreciate the four phases of learning, all of us can confidently attain unconscious competence in our lives.