Your 4 Levels of Competency
By Alex Mandossian on August 15, 2008
Click here to view this rare 7-minute video presentation from Module 3 of my Virtual Book Tour Secrets FAQ Friday call.
My good friends, Pat and Lorna Shanks of Spectacular Presentations created it for me directly from my teleseminar training on a special Friday morning.
The four levels of competency I delineate are: Unconscious Incompetence (UI), Conscious Incompetence (CI), Conscious Competence (CC) and Unconscious Competence (UC).
You’ve probably heard of these levels of consciousness before, but I feel and that UC = Mastery (whereas others feel CC = Mastery). In my experience it takes over 25,000 hours of training to master any skill and become unconsciously competent at it.
If you’ve got 7 minutes to spare right now, click here and see if you agree with my argument.
Alex…I used this model earlier this year to describe the change management challenge a client faced implementing a new enterprise business application. It’s also a great reminder why being good at something doesn’t mean you can teach or coach. To teach or coach, you have to break what you know down so your insights can become second nature (or unconscious competence) for others. You can’t start at Level 4. To anchor the 4 levels, I use a golf analogy with someone who’s never hit a ball at level 1 and Tiger Woods at Level 4. Thanks for sharing.
Loved the presentation, Alex!
For those interested in knowing more about achieving professional competence, the minimum requirement to attain Level 3 (Conscious Competence) is 10,000 hours of directly and consistently applied theory, principles and deliberate practice in the real-world under varying conditions and multiple environments. (This is above and beyond the initial study to acquire the skills, techniques, certifications, degrees etc.)
For example, if you work to become skilled at project management but only manage one type of project, with the same team, for the same client or company, 10,000 hours of doing that would not be equivalent to mastery because your skill has not been tested in variable situations and under extreme and challenging conditions.
A true master can apply the skills with equal ease in any given situation, under any conditions, including circumstances with completely unfamiliar, unknown or constantly changing variables and still return a consistently excellent and controlled outcome. That’s why a “master” is paid so much more for their opinions and services.
Cheers!
Linda M. Lopeke
The SMARTSTART Coach
http://www.smartstartcoach.com
Love your new blog, Alex. Nice, clean and very alluring. It makes want to stay forever.
Great content, as usual.
Best,
Ali
Excellent subject describing the steps to Mastery of Flow. Being consciously aware of merely the ideas of different levels brings in the opportunities to recognize where one can get stuck in the illusion of “bad luck” or “not good enough”.
Thanks
LeAnn
Dear Alex,
Thank you for sharing this piece of wisdom. The UC is very similar to the different paradigm of existence presented in Dr. David Wolf article, Be Do Have, http://satvatove.com/relationships-that-work/personal-development/be-do-have/.
In the articles he describes mastery as being coming from being not doing or having even when the doing and having are learning. Supporting your position about the mastery being fully integrated in the being even to the level of becoming unconscious.
I hope you like that.
Marie
Hi Alex, like always…..good stuff
such a useful information i got it thank you
Woo hoo! You just articulated what I’ve been guiding people towards in a feeling/visual way (mastery of energy healing) but didn’t know how to explain with words. …I’m danc-in’ …I’m hap-py …Some block in me feels like it just got busted wide open. …I’m feelin’ the flow. Thank you.
You have long been my top guy for learning great stuff that you give away for free. But I was just introduced to Frank Kern of MassControl, and he is a wizard. You guys should team up. But back to your cast…I thought it was great and enlightening.
Alex,
I like and believe the concept expressed in the 4 steps you have shown here. I liked and understood it from the first time I heard it a year ago when I was a VBT student.
I agree that full mastery doesn’t come until the UC step. But I have an issue with your 25,000 hours. I believe the time it takes varies depending on the task.
Just as background, if we assume that the most time in one day that a person can spend studying a concept or task is 12 hours, then 25,000 hours is aproximately 5.7 years of 7 days a week study and practice. Texting on cell phones has not even been an available option for 5.7 years but I would argue that there are people who have a UC mastery of that skill. On the other hand, there are many skills related to interactions between people that are never fully mastered by anyone.
So while I agree with your 4-step concept, I feel that saying UC requires 25,000 hours of practice may lead some people to feel that the effort will not be worth the potential gain and they will be turned off from their dreams.
Thanks for listening,
–Chuck
http://www.homesolarenergynow.com
Hi Alex
You always have great tidbits to share - thank you. Nice online training and marketing resource from Spectacular Presentations!
While we are sharing information here I would like to add a little relatively unknown piece of information about the levels of competency. There is a 5th level of competency - CUC Conscious Unconscious Competence. As a person moves from learning consciously to learning unconsciously, they become unaware of how they increase their expertise. This is why many experts are not able to teach their mastery because they don’t know how they know. The 5th level is bringing their unconscious competence to consciousness so that they can identify the expert distinctions.
Well said. However, knowing what we don’t know about something that is important to us is not possible. Why? It’s not in our brain (past conditioning) and that is why we can’t fathom it.
hi alex,this is certainly a new viewpoint on
peoples competence,and one i feel varies
from person to person,true we can train at
many skills,though there needs to be development in those skills,before we can switch to autopilot.
Take a musician/singer ,as myself,playing
becomes a natural process,though i need to
have developed in my own lessons and practice
time.
Also as having trained as a tutor,people have
different ways of learning,that are usually
best developed according to the environment
they learn,ie relaxed and unpressurised
the more relaxed maybe the most unconscious
efforts are produced.
thankyou for this article
Alex:
Your discussion about Competence was most interesting. I have used that matrix of the four levels of competence for many years. However, I have reversed the top two. For me unconscious competence is not as desireable a conscious competence. With unconscious competence you are successful, you are doing something right but you do not know why. Therefore, it is completely intuitive and probably could not be articulated or taught and therefore perhaps could not benefit anyone else or be consistently replicated in own’s one life. However, with conscious competence you know how to do what you do and you know that you know. Therefore, you can qualitatively and quantitatively replicate your skill and teach it to another.
Best Wishes,
Ralph Harding
Alex, nice to hear from you…
From neurology, we know it takes about 3,000 neuronal pathway stimuli to form a new pattern in the brain…that amounts to about 21 days to form a new habit( unless you’re really keen on doing it more often).
BTW: whenif you’re coming to Toronto, I’d like to invite you to my office because you are one of my best mentors, to get a BodyScan2010 done, if you wish-I see you are open to this kind of learning & new experiences…
OK, don’t get too excited! it’s NOT that kind of Body Scan…you can read more about it on my site, http://www.doctoranca.com
xoxo, Anca
Hi Alex!
This is my first time here. Thanks for the invitation. You’ve got great presentation tools!
Many of my clients have talked to me about these 4 levels and I have been called (UC) my more than a few of them. No brag-just fact.
Your readers have shed light on at least TWO manifestations of this 4 level hierarchy. One was touched on by Chuck’s texting reference and the other by Ralph’s comment about intuition.
One requires being plugged in to your own consciousness and directing it toward mastery of a task. The other requires your consciousness to flow over an intangible bridge in an intuitve response to another human being.
But it’s not “completely intuitive” as Ralph says. Nor can you teach someone skill. I cannot give you the experience of samadhi (oneness) but I can teach you to become ‘one-pointed’ in your meditation. Teachers or mentors can lead you to the door, but every individual must walk through the door to Mastery alone.
One more thing if I may. This quote from Chuck:
“…25,000 hours of practice may lead some people to feel that the effort will not be worth the potential gain and they will be turned off from their dreams.”
I believe the people he is referring to make up the majority of ‘Consensual Reality’. The people who subscribe to that reality are ALWAYS looking for a reason why they can’t do, be or have something.
Blessings and Be Well,
Jaroslav Waznee (the Wizard of Waz)
I liked the simplicity of the presentation. It was very clear and applicable to life in general not just business. I know a few people that think they know but don’t. Where would that fall?
Keep teaching the good stuff,
Thomas C. Roquemore
Alex, I liked how you almost wove the poem from Omar Kayan into the discussion of the four levels. A little different (e.g. less clinical) perspective on UC is: As a young person working in a professional field, I remember having a certain business sense about things even though I had no prior experience or education to validate it. Later, when I went to college, I learned that in fact my ‘instincts’ were correct. Therefore, it can be argued that one can be unconsciously competetent without necessarily reaching a level of ‘mastery’ or spending tens of thousands of hours learning and practicing. I’m sure we can all think of a time when we ‘knew’ something, even though we could not describe exactly how we knew it.
Very interesting and rewarding, Could not beleive you could write a story on FAQ and I read it twice. Very good, Alex. We should have more of these little “things to know”, it is interesting and put me right in to 3 and 4. Hopefully will not take me 25,000 hours, but who knows. I enjoyed it very much. Sincerely,
This was nice, Alex. I appreciate your Zen-nish inclinations.
Hi Alex
I find as much value listening to your presentation as reading the comments - thanks for allowing us to share the different professional contexts
As many of us, I did use that model of the learning process, and I’m not sure I did understand the point you wanted to enlighten for us?
Do we talk about performance ( as a pilot who wants to gain miliseconds negociating the turns, and clearing his consciousness from constant attention ) thus creating inconscious competence using different technics?
Do we talk about patterns, thus inconscious processes - in personal development - which are on our way when we are asked to become pro active? thus creating new psycho/neurological paths? avoiding getting stuck in re-enacting old strategies? what do you suggest when it comes to survival issues? What kind of model is efficient ?
Don’t we come to adulthood with all that conditioning stuff? Thus become aware of that conditioning takes other methods? What entry point? The thing is I might be level 4 in knowing the way to teach english for example, but at the same time level 1 in the situation of acting as a teacher and attracting the attention of teenagers not interested at learning english. So the question comes : which part of me has to learn something and what’s in the way? (do I take responsibility for my emotions and thinking process? and… why would I do so?) How trained should I be in order to interact successfully? Who provides that kind of learning? (school?)
Then you face situations as a corporate coach, where obviously patterns within the organisation deserves survival strategies in a context of economic issue. Here comes the question of influencing (with ethic)both operative processes, and social transformation..(using learning processes)
The good question is: are you given the time supposed necessary to implement new patterns?
You can improve your self esteem, right? (me & me
You can learn how you create the conditions of confidence (trust?)(me & others)
How can you learn faith? (me & the world?)what could drive your willing to learn?
Alex, where is your point A, and what is your point B?
I live in a complex system …whatever I try to point out.. What is the paradigme shift we need?
Michele
Thank you for sharing your thoughts Alex.
I’m not sure how to bite-size my comment. Your 7 mins presentation raised so many points about knowledge, skill and competence.
This quote by Tian Hao, attributed to Einstein sums up my view:
“The knowledge that we have can be analogous to a circle.
Inside the circle is what we know and what we call knowledge; outside the circle is what we don’t know and need to explore.
As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.
So the more we know, the more we feel that we don’t know”.
- Attributed to Einstein by Tian Hao, stating an idea he says had inspired him since childhood, in Electrorheological Fluids : The Non-aqueous Suspensions (2005), Introduction (15 July 2005)
I hope to be always learning and sharing that knowledge where possible. As to the level of competence, I leave it to others to decide:-)
The information’s really good and simple, confirming some ideas presented in the psychology of achievement.
The presentation itself…I wasn’t fond of, but I’m really persnickety about oral presentations. :)
Thank you for being willing and capable to share with us on a conscious competent level. There are few teachers out there that are willing or aware enough to understand this simple principle, but it is not so simple for most unconscious competent. This is a wonderful post Alex and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read it. There are few teachers that I know I will absolutely follow the rest of my life. Because you provide so much value and you are always raising the bar Alex, I know I can make that committment to you!!!
Thank you Alex for another quick nugget of wisdom for us to enjoy and share!
Alex, I well remember this segment of the Question Answer as I am the one that asked the question that precipitated the answer you gave on the podcast. Well believe it or not I am scheduled to do a live program at a Library in Hampton, VA where I will be talking briefly about my own stuff and then interviewing L. Nelson Farley “Ghost Busting with the Haunted and the Haunting”. I don’t have the exact title yet. It is going to be October 2, at 6:30 P.M. eastern time at the Hampton Library. I want to record it so that I can later repurpose it. Should I have a DVD recorder there or just a regular recording. I would love to turn it into a teleseminar later on. This is a first step Alex. I am using some of your suggestions in the questioning. E-mail me if you have any other suggestions or comments. There will not be any telephones involved on October 2. I wanted October because of Halloween. The people that usually show up for these are writers. Some of the questions are: 1. What got you into ghost busting? 2. What is ghost Busting? 3. You never call it exorcism so are they different? 4. What do ghosts want? 5. Have your methods changed? 6. How do you know where to find ghosts? 7. Have you had any surprises? Nelson will read one of Bob Taylor’s stories from the Ghosts of Williamsburg, Volume 2. It is a mystery that the audience can help figure out. Then Nelson will tell how he resolved the situation as to how he interacts to get the haunted to the light. I received the training video that Jessica Wright sent me but I so far have not figured out how to implement it. Alex I am getting my feet wet. Thanks for your patience and insight. I truly feel blessed that our paths have crossed. Barbara Drucker Smith
I knew I’d get comments about the hierarchy of how I place UI, CI, CC and UC … in the traditional model, CC is above UC.
I totally and completely disagree from my own experience and understanding what “flow” really means (as a national caliber athlete - cycling and squash and as an Entrepreneurial CEO).
Bottom line for me is that all wisdom comes from Mastery and Mastery takes time. And since competence in anything is mechanical, the “flow” comes from being in the state of UC.
You may disagree if you’ve read this far, but that’s probably because you’re reading this comment from a CC point of view. There is no room or time for judgment at the UC level of consciousness.
Anyway, much smarter people than I came up with the model, so even if you think I’m inaccurate with my evaluation, do what it takes to get into a “flow” of what you’re really, really strong at and see if you “consciously” think about it when you’re in action doing it.
In my experience, you’ll sacrifice Mastery when you take time to “consciously” evaluate your competency level at any task.
Hello,
My first time here …
so I must say, you have such an
intelligent readership!
The debate between CC vs UC, as to
which should be on the highest
rung, is very interesting.
For myself, as a copywriter, I
struggle with trying to explain
or teach because it’s all so
intuitive for me.
But, in order to talk about it on
my blog or elsewhere, I’d be much
better off to come from the CC state.
This is particularly fascinating, since it’s ‘front & center’ for me right now. :)
The CC state, to me, is so cumbersome
and slow. Yet, again, I consciously
know it is vital to explaining/teaching.
My eldest son is quite a good golfer.
He’s at the point where he doesn’t think …
thinking gets in the way. He just trusts
that his body will remember, after a
gazillion repetitive motions.
When I trust, I have the same experience
with my writing. It’s when I start to
‘think’ that I doubt. And when I doubt
(don’t trust), the end product reveals the doubt.
As many others, including Eckhart Tolle of late,
have said about ‘being’ — it’s a state that
transcends ‘thinking.’
When I’m in the zone, the flow … I don’t
think. I listen, trust, act. Sounds like many of your readers know this place! :)
My action comes from the state of being-ness, and it’s so beautiful, isn’t it?
I’m finding that it’s becoming more and more
difficult for me to ratchet down to the CC
level to explain or teach what I know/do.
Kudos to you for finding a comfort level
in both!
Carolyn
http://www.kickasscopywriter.com
Hi Alex,
I completely agree with you on the 4 levels of competency and this is so valuable. I appreciate that you go from the top level to the third level to teach to all of us as your students so that we may understand and give us context with content.
Now being aware consciously, I am now able to help my students even more.
Thanks for the insight into consciousness.
Jason Manwill
http://www.jasonmanwill.com
Hello Alex,
Your excellent video explaining the four levels of intellectual abilities instantly brought to my mind the usefullness of such a concise presentation. Most well educated or well read people usually know the context of each level you presented in a more diluted way.
If this video could be used in our educational system to assist students in understanding such things as — what talents do I have — what career should I choose — what natural instincts do I have and how am I using them, etc.
One of the greatest pitfalls in education is not knowing what you want to do or are suited to do in life–like graduating from college and having no idea what you’ll be doing the next day.
If the true depth of each level of consciousness you present was taught in high school and college, maybe the insight would create a new open world of self-improvement and focused redirection for those students.
I’m sure Dietzel, Ricklan, Lakhani, Manning, and a bunch of other teachers would agree (level 3).
The value is in teaching others. The price is a non-issue.
Curt Graham
Alex,
Not only was your discussion/video excellent, it has also triggered an incredible number of thought provoking comments.
What a great group! I have read them all and am duly impressed. You are a Conciously Competent teacher and marketer.
WOW!
Chris King
Excellent presentation on an important subject; I happen to agree that the top 1% in any field or endeavor do things on a very high level without thinking about why they do them. You become an expert by doing 5 things 10,000 times. You used an excellent example when you spoke of being unconsciously competent as a driver; we all started off terrified behind the wheel, and now we do things by reflex.
Good stuff,
Kyle French/ SingleTrack Agent
Hi Alex,
An old favourite with many personal development trainers and always worth a revisit. For new comers, a useful introduction. I agree with Susan (15th Aug) about the 5th level. It’s entirely possible to be in flow while increasing competence, and to be in flow while teaching. For me, that happens best by maintaining an internal 3rd position, a background awareness AT THE SAME TIME as providing context.
I think that any competent NLP trainer/modeller could reduce that 25,000 hours by a factor of between 4 and 10, started early in the learning process. That isn’t likely to happen though, unless someone is at least a level 2!
Thanks for another timely review of an important subject.
Jen
Dear Alex:
Thanks for this short lesson.
Considering the level 3 & 4 perspective was interesting, enlightening and I whole-heartedly agree.
Great teachers help shine the light and you’ve done just that.
Best Regards,
I tried to was the video but I just doesn’t work on Macs. It is a pity. (Running sys 10.5.4 and Firefox 3.0.1 with nothing blocked.)
It was difficult to stay focused on the message.
Many years as a facilitator for learning and training helped me understand where the message was going.
Found the message presented in a way that the choir understands but everyone else is left shrugging, “so?”
Hi Alex,
I agree with your 4 levels of competency. The athletes who are competing in the Beijing Olympics that are outperforming their World competitors have achieved Unconscious Competence. Michael Phelps is a perfect example.
I had achieved UC in golf in a shorter time than most people. I focused on the things I was doing right, focused on the target and saw myself completing exactly what I wanted. The whole became greater than the individual parts, and the results were spectacular. I like what Alex says about how doing things well consistently produces extraordinary results…This in combo with knowing what you want and seeing yourself as achieving it helps on the journey to UC.
Thanks again for your excellent material Alex!
Jan Peterson
http://www.IntervalTrainingFitness.com
Alex,
Loved the presentation…As a Marriage and Family Therapist you are right on as far as the psychology underneath the helpful concepts you are sharing. As always, you present information in a usable,practical way that inspires action and inspiration.
Great to see you at the Podcast Secrets Reunion!!! More great content and inspiration!
Many Blessings,
Kim Fredrickson
http://www.KimsPodcast.com
Alex,
I feel there is a beautiful connection between level 3 & 4. The difference lies in one’s focus, for when we focus on our thoughts we are naturally aware of “I”. The flow happens when we step out of the picture & the Wisdom of our Body responds to our stimulus. This is impossible to understand, but easily accomplished when habits are developed. I work with people in a health crisis and in that intensity there is a drive that naturally transcends the limitations of thinking. The “I” can not navigate that inner space, but it is more common than we think.
Lovers naturally do it, parents, kids playing and any spiritual moment where our goal is more important than our thoughts. We have the power to consciously condition that super-conscious response for before sleep & upon awakening the door to our sub-conscious is open and there we can consciously create habits. We can create a habit that takes our consciousness beyond thinking and as we enter that flow…the “I” has the ability to reappear to take us to level 3 without thinking about it.
People in life threatening situations do that regularly and I think that is a natural part of conscious living. I think when silence becomes our friend; we have the ability to move between levels when ever they serve us. We naturally gravitate to the level that has least resistance. Resistance = when old habits replace conscious preferences. That is when you hang out on level 4 &3 but sometimes 2.
Thanks this was a nice exercise,
Marc Lerner