Episode Details

Summary

Learning new things can be painful. Understand why that's the case can help us, both as learners and leaders, to become more effective. This week we look at a framework to help us understand the predictable stages of learning, and what that requires from us as leaders.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 24 of the Leadership Today Podcast where each week we tackle one of today's biggest leadership challenges.

When's the last time you learned something new? How did that feel?

The workplace is changing rapidly, which means as leaders we are often needing to try things that we haven't tried before. But learning something new can be hard - it typically involves an element of feeling awkward. Why is that? And what does it mean for us and our teams?

Chances are that at some point in your life your learnt to drive a car. You may have even taught someone else to drive.

What does it feel like as the learner heads towards a car for their first lesson. They're no doubt a little nervous, but are also typically keen to give it a try. Often there's an assumption that driving a car can't be that difficult - after all, they've seen thousands of others do it every day - how hard can it be? Martin Broadwell described four levels of learning back in 1969, and he referred to this stage as Unconscious Incompetence - the learner doesn't know what they don't know. They can't possibly know how hard it might be to learn to drive a car because they've never done it before. The leader needs to invest effort and time in helping the learner at this point, as they're likely to need really clear directions.

So what happens in those first few lessons? No doubt the learner stalls the car, maybe forgets to indicate, or even has a near miss with another car. They might choose the wrong gear or clip the kerb while taking a corner. Their lack of skill in the task is quickly uncovered. But what does that feel like? It feels awful. Every element of driving at this stage takes a lot of thought and planning - knowing where to position the car in the lane, what kind of distance to keep from the car in front, how to translate the images in the mirror to know where other cars are. Broadwell called this Conscious Incompetence - the learner is all too aware of just how much they don't know, and it often feels awful. Unless there's sufficient motivation, the learner may even give up at this stage. What the learner needs at this stage is plenty of encouragement to keep on learning.

Let's assume the learner sticks with it. Over the next year they're likely to become better at driving. Things will become more predictable and in control. They will still need to concentrate on elements of driving, but it will start to feel more comfortable and natural. They need fewer directions from the leader, aside from the occasional new element of encouragement. Broadwell called this stage Conscious Competence - the learner now knows how to do the task, but it still requires quite a lot of conscious thought and effort.

And, over time, if the learner driver continues to gain experience and develop their skills, eventually they will reach Unconscious Competence. This is the stage where the skill becomes automatic. Have you ever had that experience of driving somewhere and not remembering much of the trip? That's likely an example of Unconscious Competence. All the gear changes, lane changes, braking, accelerating, mirror checks and everything else becomes automatic - only exceptional circumstances are likely to require you to use conscious thought and effort. You don't need much input from the person training you - they ha