The Conscious Competence Ladder is a model introduced in the 1970s by psychologists Noel Burch, Gordon Training International, and Abraham Maslow.
It describes the stages of learning a new skill, from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence.
What is the Conscious Competence Ladder?
The Conscious Competence Ladder has four stages that show the levels of competence when learning a new skill:
- Unconscious Incompetence.
- Conscious Incompetence.
- Conscious Competence.
- Unconscious Competence.
The model states that when we start learning something new, we don’t know what we don’t know.
As we become more competent, we go through stages of being aware of our incompetence, then being consciously competent as we practice, before finally reaching unconscious competence, where the skill becomes second nature. We frequently hear this from clients with leadership and delegation skills training needs.
7 Characteristics of the Conscious Competence Ladder
Here are seven key characteristics of the Conscious Competence model:
- It has four stages from incompetence to competence.
- It shows the learning journey when acquiring a new skill.
- Unconscious incompetence comes first, where we are unaware of what we don’t know.
- Conscious incompetence is when we realize our lack of skill.
- Conscious competence is when we can perform the skill, but it requires effort.
- Unconscious competence is when the skill becomes automatic.
- It highlights the importance of awareness in learning.
Application in the Workplace
The Conscious Competence Ladder is commonly used in workplace training and development. Benefits include:
- It helps trainees understand the learning process.
- Allows managers to assess team members’ skill levels.
- Encourages self-reflection and awareness.
- Improves training by focusing on stages needed.
- It helps create plans to progress people to the next stage.
Challenges can include difficulty assessing true competence and assumptions about learner progression.
Tips and Techniques
Here are some tips for applying Conscious Competence:
- Assess team members’ current stage for each skill.
- Create training plans tailored to the learning stage.
- Use coaching conversations to increase self-awareness.
- Celebrate progression through the stages.
- Allow time for unconscious competence to develop.
- Repetition and practice are essential in conscious competence.
- Don’t assume everyone progresses at the same pace.
Examples in the Workplace
Some examples of Conscious Competence in action:
- A new salesperson is unconsciously incompetent about a product at first.
- After initial training, they realize how much more there is to learn (conscious incompetence).
- With practice and coaching, they become consciously competent at selling the product.
- After months of experience, they become unconsciously competent and excel.
- A manager is unconsciously incompetent in giving feedback effectively.
- Training helps them see their gaps and improvement needs (conscious incompetence).
- They practice and get better at giving feedback (conscious competence).
- After a time, they naturally give great feedback without thinking about it (unconscious competence).
- A graphic designer is unconsciously incompetent when first using new software.
- As they learn the software, they become aware of the tools they need to master (conscious incompetence).
- With effort, they develop skills to use the software competently (conscious competence).
- Eventually, their software skills become second nature (unconscious competence).
Conclusion
The Conscious Competence Ladder is a useful model for understanding the learning process. Recognizing the stages of competence can help improve workplace training, coaching, skill development and situational leadership.
With awareness, practice and patience, unconscious competence can be achieved. Applying the principles of conscious competence enables continuous growth.
Read more about Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs and the Ladder Of Inference.
With 30+ years of training experience, I founded Oak Innovation (oakinnovation.com) in 1995. I help busy training professionals and business managers deliver better training courses in less time by giving them instant access to editable training course material. I received my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from University College Cork. I hold qualifications in Professional Development And Training from University College Galway. Clients include Apple, Time Warner, and Harvard University.
