Subscribe to Christopher Bell's weekly newsletter on leadership, management, personal development, and entrepreneurship.
Share
Want to achieve? Learn the four stages π― Wednesday Win
Published 8 months agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
Want to achieve at a high level and build expert skills at something meaningful? You'll need to climb through the Four Stages of Competence. This powerful roadmap to mastery is a guide to understanding how we integrate our knowledge and intuition to perform at a high level consistently.
The Four Stages mental model for learning is my favorite way to prepare for the necessary work when I tackle something new or reinforce my learning where I already have expertise. Let's explore:
Understanding the framework
The Four Stages of Competence can be best shown as a pyramid that one climbs when learning any new significant skill.
We'll explore each level, but first recognize we start at the base. As we learn and take action, climb from stage to stage. At the top, we reach mastery and our regular practice yields good decisions and good actions in that domain.
Consider the stages:
Unconscious Incompetence
Conscious Incompetence
Conscious Competence
Unconscious Competence
The Four Stages of Competence
Let's dive into each stage.
1. Unconscious Incompetence
At the start, we have a lack of knowledge and no good basis to make intuitive decisions. Often at this stage, we are worse than neutral on the subject as we're likely to make poor decisions and take lower value actions because we misapply our knowledge and skills from other domains.
If we've only ever used a hammer and nails, when we encounter a screw for the first time, we're more likely to try to pound it in with our hammer than realize we need to find a screwdriver instead.
At this stage, we have the wrong intuition and need to learn through knowledge acquisition and empirical experience.
2. Conscious Incompetence
As we experiment and continue our training, we begin to see the limits and gaps in our knowledge and abilities. At this second stage, we begin to improve our performance and recognize what we still have to learn.
Our intuition improves, but our analysis is still weak.
3. Conscious Competence
Most who study diligently and continue regularly to practice the skills reach this third stage: conscious competence. At this level one understands the fundamentals of the field of study and can apply them consistently. Doing well still requires significant effort at times, but the results are generally good to great.
This is functional competence and reflects how good employees do their work.
This stage is where good analysis lives and where most stop learning.
4. Unconscious Competence
At this highest stage, something magical happens. This is where the 10x-ers live: unconscious competence. This is where the knowledge and experience have been built to such a level that not only is the output good, it's often innovative or seemingly counter-intuitive, but consistently correct in their approach.
This is where intuition or the power of the subconscious mind kicks in and delivers a steady stream of valuable ideas.
We've all seen people who live in this space for some area of their life. The musician who can just pick up an instrument and create something interesting on the spot. The copywriter who can generate novel framing for a new product. Or the engineer who can create a novel architecture for a problem that's been stubbornly resistant to conventional solutions.
This is the level to seek for those top priorities in your life
Study and do the necessary work to build up not just ability, but intuitive understanding of your field
Seek out those at this level as partners and colleagues to accelerate your own learning
To be truly excellent, this is the target to reach
Action Summary
To be outstanding in your chosen area of interest, you need to climb through the stages. While not everyone's pace is the same, the path does require the same steps: gaining knowledge and building experience through application of that knowledge.
As Jim Rohn said, you can't expect to harvest to crop before you sow the seeds. You must first put in the work.
Learn and practice
Build a network of support from others who have excelled in the same domain
Seek true mastery in the areas that matter most to you and align with your priorities
Share what you've learned to help others earlier on the journey
Raising both analytical skills and intuition to rise in overall competence
What do you think? How well does this mental model align to your greatest skills? Reply to this email and let me know.
β
To your success,
Christopher
β
P.S. Like this one? You'll probably want to check out this earlier Wednesday Win essay on having the best possible year, too.
β
Looking for a deeper dive on these topics? Connect here and reach out:
Many first-time leaders focus on strategy: the whats, the whos, and the whens. But if you want to build successful teams for the long-term, it's the culture you set and encourage that has the greatest impact and not the plans you've made. Read on: blog.WednesdayWin.com Read time: 4 minutes What drives and determines culture? And, most critically, what can you do to improve an unhealthy one? Getting it right from the start is best, but don't lose hope if you've inherited a difficult situation....
When we're under extreme stress, our creative problem solving is blocked and we depend too much on our fight or flight instincts instead. To be effective as a leader, you need to take back control of your mind by distinguishing work pressure from unhealthy stress and managing challenges before they get out of hand. Read on: blog.WednesdayWin.com Read time: 5 minutes As you build a new organization or rise through the ranks as an employee, the demands on your attention, capabilities,...
Let's get honest. You want to crush your goals this year, but that path from here to there isn't always easy to see. You need to ramp up your pace and fast. But massive growth in productivity isnβt just about doing more. Itβs about doing what matters, and delivering with less effort instead of more. But how? Read on: blog.WednesdayWin.com Read time: 3 minutes There are three essential components and one key requirement that drives sustained, meaningful accelerating growth in productivity and...