This journey from “Unconscious Incompetence” to “Unconscious Competence” is a concept developed by Noel Burch in the 1970’s, however, a friend and I were discussing how people felt deskilled when entering new work settings and I came up with an idea of how we can adapt this concept so we can understand the experience better.
The basic model is that there are four stages to the development of your understanding and your practice. The first stage is the “Unconscious Incompetence” stage, where, as you work away you do the tasks that you know how to do without thinking about it. Sometimes the way you work has worked well and other times it does not work so well. You might not be aware however, that your practice is not good enough, it’s that simple.
I have paraphrased what this means in the picture here that “You are not aware of what you do not know.” As you work away, you do not know that there are things you do not know. If you think about it, before you began any course, you did your job, and we will assume you did your job well enough, however, there will be aspects of why you do your job, and how you could improve it that you did not know about at that point. There may be many in your work setting who are content at this level. They almost blindly go about their task, do the work and then go home not considering the day that has gone by. I am not suggesting that we should take our work home with us. However, reflecting on your day is an important part of practice development, debriefing or life enhancement.
At the “Conscious Incompetence” stage you would be presented with new concepts, and you become more aware of what you did not know. This can be quite deskilling and uncomfortable. In the “Conscious Incompetence” stage you become aware of your lack of knowledge in certain areas, and it is in that moment, as you look at the knowledge requirements you have in front of you, or the gaps in your knowledge or skills, you recognise the need to know this. This is where people may try to excuse the lack of knowledge or skill development with a variety of reasons, “Too busy”, “Not my responsibility” etc. However, there will be those who see this as an opportunity to grow and develop their practice or life experience.
So, at the early stage of any qualification, or new role you are taking on, there is certain knowledge that you have been introduced to. This knowledge has to be learned and you, through practice, begin to apply that knowledge. Not only have you developed the knowledge you need, but you are aware of it as you are applying it.
You are now applying knowledge as you are working with a person, or carrying out a professional or life task, and that is “Conscious Competence”. This is a fantastic stage to get to, when you realize “Oh! That’s what I’m doing” and “That’s why I’m doing that” and then from there, understanding what you would not do as you utilize the knowledge you know. The key to this stage is discernment. Looking at the range of theories, concepts, knowledge or skills and discerning what the most appropriate is.
Then there’ll be a point where you begin to automatically use the knowledge. This is the “Unconscious Competence” stage. That means that you use the knowledge that you have been learning about, that you have embedded. You have developed your thinking through a lot of discussion with supervisors and colleagues, or within a class setting, or even with trusted friends or family and then you just do it without even thinking about it.
I want to explore some of the bridges between those early stages of development within Burch’s Model.
I believe that at each stage, when you see movement from one stage to another, there are connecting bridges over which you must travel. These bridges offer choices, and I stress, there are usually more than one option. For every possibility of moving through a stage, there are multiple possibilities. There may be a variety of different ways of resolving issues, using a variety of different theories and concepts or techniques for carrying out a task, and so you have multiple choices that you either “Accept” or “Reject”.
Within this picture we can see the arrows are broken down into an “Awareness” of what you need to know, and then the choice of accepting or rejecting the knowledge, skill or whatever. So, when you get to your situation and you hear about a concept, you become aware that you might need to know that concept to rectify or provide a solution for this situation. In that moment you have a choice to make, you can either accept that knowledge for that solution, or you can reject it. When you accept or reject you will be influenced by many internal or external things.
Within the choices, your perception of what the need is and what the outcome could be is critical, your viewpoint of how this will be resolved and what it will look like is very important. Perception is one of those things that is individual to a present time and circumstance. I am reminded of when I was looking at the fir trees on the golf course and they appeared to be bright orange in colour. As I stared at them, I realised that my perception was being discoloured because of the morning sun shining upon the trees. Your perception of any situation, need, or behaviour will be affected by the lens you look through. As I sat there, I began to question if the fir trees had been affected by the winter season, however, I knew they were evergreen. As the clouds came across the sky the light from the sun was blocked from impacting my view of the trees and I could see that they were indeed green. Another important point from this is, although my perception of the trees was distorted, the actual reality of the tree being green had remained the same. My perception did not alter the true situation but only my perception of it. When viewing a person’s need or circumstances we must consider it from their vantage point for they are the expert in their life.
When moving from “Unconscious Incompetence” you may be presented with theories and concepts that you can pick and choose from. The more you research, the more you listen to advice, the greater the options. There will be some that will be acceptable to you, based on your character and how you perceive you should work. Also, you will make choices based on what you know works for that person. There will be times when you accept or reject based on who is passing on the knowledge. There are people whose opinion you trust and those whose opinion you do not value. You then accept knowledge and practice that appears reasonable, or beneficial, but you will reject those that you believe does not work for that person or for you both.
Your acceptance or rejection will be influenced by the concept of “Growth Mindset”. Your willingness to accept that you do not have all the answers and you need to hear other options, other solutions, demonstrates that you have a growth mindset. That growth mindset means that you will accept new ways of doing it, different ways of doing it. Having a growth mindset is crucial for the reflective practitioner. If you have a fixed mindset, then you might be less willing to accept new ways of working or carrying out a task. You may find that your practice is “good enough” and so therefore you stick with that because it is “good enough”. You may perceive the development required to progress will take a lot of effort and sacrifice and that may be something you are not able, or willing to commit to.
You can be presented with many concepts, many psychological, sociological theories, many methods of intervention, many different policies and procedures and you will have to pick the relevant one for that individual or situation. When it comes to policy and procedure, you would not have so much of a choice about, yet, let us be honest, we all know people who have not followed policy and procedure, they have chosen not to and that is dangerous, dangerous for the person you are working with, but it is also dangerous for you as a professional, your team and the service. That kind of fixed mindset will only cause damage ultimately.
I must be honest, sometimes you will need a fixed mindset. If something works well for someone, stick with it! I am not suggesting you change for change’s sake, but I will expect you to be flexible in your thinking when the person in front of you needs you to be.
Some theories and concepts you can be more flexible with, in what theory you use, using parts of it that suits a particular situation. You need to know what the concept is before you can unpack how you can use it. A general understanding, followed by a deeper level of understanding enables you to effectively choose the correct approach.
For example, I have a screwdriver set with many types of screwdrivers in my garage. I know where my screwdrivers are, and I choose the one that suits the task. I do not have to use them all, I pick the one to match the need.
As mentioned previously, there are a huge range of things that can influence your choice, your mood at that time, your state of mind as well as state of mind of the individual you are working with will affect which bridge you choose. As you progress towards “Conscious Competence” you have multiple opportunities and options in front of you. You make your choices based on what you know is available and you can expand or limit the knowledge range determined by the space and time you have available as well as your level of motivation to research.
As you keep on crossing bridges, you develop an “Unconscious Competence”, instinctively using knowledge and skill that fits what you believe to be right. To help our understanding of this process I picture it like a childhood toy where you take different shapes and fit them through holes in the lid of a box.
We accept or reject knowledge, or advice, based on how well you believe what is on offer fits your idea of the work that needs to be done, or life expectations. So here we have six different shapes, we know that we have a good idea these probably fit. You would take the shape and put it into the hole that matched the shape.
There are things you need to apply to work or life situations to meet the needs of people. As I speak about this I was thinking of developmental strands within stages of development, Physical, Social, Cultural, Emotional, Cognitive needs. All those needs that person has as they grow up.
Every choice you make will offer a different outcome; every application will have a different outcome from your choice. It is important that you recognise your decisions are critical when it comes to promoting specific outcomes for the individual you are working with or the outcome of any task you have been set. You accepting or rejecting things that could help, impacts on the fulfillment of that need. You are viewing the individual through what do you believe is the answer to meet that need. Your relationship with the individual as you respond to the need could be the key to help in the resolution to that situation.
Sometimes you have an individual with very complex needs and when you look at the range of options in front of you, you pick the one that best fits that need. You bring your best to the table and the shape that is the best fit is what you apply until you are able to have that conversation where you support the individual in the way that all involved feel is appropriate. There are many situations we know we could have done better. You have done well enough to support the person in this situation but you know that part of your practice, or there is part of your understanding where you think “hmm! It was the right thing to do, but the manner in which I did it could have been better”. However, we were good enough!
