Climbing the Competency Ladder

4 Stages of Learning to Help your Projects and Career

The difference between knowing a lot of facts and understanding how to use those same facts can be observed from the level of insight obtained. Often the same information is available to many people, yet some can reach greater insights and create more value. This difference can easily be seen if you were to give an industry report to an analyst and a partner in a consulting firm and ask both of them to give a summary and interpret the information. The partner will likely be able to give a brief, informative, and insightful answer due to their depth of understanding of the topic area.

The journey of a consultant aligns with a model of learning called the Conscious Competence Ladder.

The 4 stages of this ladder (in order of progression) are:

1. Unconscious incompetence – You don’t know what you don’t know
2. Conscious incompetence – You know what you don’t know
3. Conscious competence – You are aware of how much you know
4. Unconscious competence – You are building on your existing knowledge

With enough time you can progress through each of these stages. However, if you develop a structured approach you may be able to accelerate your progress through the stages in order to reach deeper insights more quickly.

Consider using the following four step approach:

1. Estimate your current level
2. Know what stage you want to achieve
3. Define the questions to ask yourself and others
4. Test your progress

1. Estimate your current level on the ladder

This is often the easiest part. If you have never done a task or project before you are most likely at the first level – you don’t know what you don’t know. The good news is you can progress through the first stage rather quickly by asking the right questions.

If you have been working in an industry, you may be at the second level and working on closing knowledge gaps. For example, if a consultant asks if you know how to use Excel, unless you can build a workbook without using your computer mouse you probably aren’t at the desired level. Yet you don’t know what things are important to learn next.

Often you will be between the second and third tiers, where you are self-aware but have a different level of working knowledge on different topics.

2. Know what stage you want to get to

If you are starting something new, then you will be at the first rung of the ladder.  In this situation, it is important to identify what level of knowledge and understanding you need to get to in order to accomplish the current project or task.

If you are working on becoming a subject matter expert, then reaching the final tier on the ladder is likely your goal.

3. Define the questions to ask yourself and others

Advancing through the stages requires becoming aware and then structuring a plan to fill knowledge gaps.

Two useful tools that you can use to formulate questions and identify knowledge gaps are:

• KWL Charts – Identify what you know, don’t know, and want to learn
• RQI Question Formulation Technique – Create a guiding statement to formulate your own questions

In the first stage, it is crucial to seek input from others in order to become aware of what is important and prioritize what you should focus on. As you become more aware, you will likely rely less on others and more on your own ability to find and use information.

I noticed this process take place as I became a subject matter expert during my doctoral research. I eventually reached a point where I had spent more time familiarizing myself with a research topic than my advisor. As a result, I had to test myself to find the gaps in my understanding. I was conscious of my level of knowledge and what areas were lacking.

4. Test your progress

As you move through the stages you can and should test yourself to see how you have progressed. You can do this for skills as well as knowledge areas.

For a skill, you can assess your performance by asking:

• How well can I estimate the amount of time a task will take to complete?
• Can I plan all the steps needed to complete a task in sufficient detail to delegate them to someone else?

For a knowledge area, you can assess your performance by asking:

• Can I identify insights based on second- or third-order thinking?
• Can I predict outcomes with an acceptable degree of accuracy?
• Can I put new information into context?

Summary

The learning journey involves becoming aware of your lack of competence, acquiring new knowledge and skills, and then building upon what you know. When starting something completely new, ask others for help in order to build awareness, focus your attention, and start prioritizing. As you become an expert, test your understanding, acknowledge what you don’t know, and be willing to concede when the data simply doesn’t exist to answer the question at hand.

Andrew Kuczmarski is a PhD candidate at the University of Delaware whose passion lies at the intersection of science and business.

Image: Pexels

🔴 Interested in consulting?