My wife will tell you that when I’m craving a cheeseburger that’s the only thing on my mind. I have a (loose) stance: My self-sustainment relies on satisfying this need. This cheeseburger is the very foundation of my existence. Sustaining myself comes before my safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs. That’s the Eric Chaiken nod to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a hierarchy suggesting that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other needs. We’re most familiar with Maslow’s needs theoretical framework, but there’s another equally insightful theory that Maslow developed: Four Stages of Learning. It’s exactly what it sounds like too – a four stage process people go through when learning something new. These four stages of knowing are 1) Unconscious Incompetence, 2) Conscious Incompetence, 3) Conscious Competence, and 4) Unconscious Competence
Let’s take a walk through Maslow’s learning life cycle using the process of interviewing as an example.
1. Unconscious Incompetence: The brain doesn’t know what it doesn’t know and it’s alright with that. The person interviewing in this stage has an interview lined up and just plans on prancing in to the hiring managers’ office and shaking hands to accept the job offer. The brain is not aware of its deficiency, thus it is not aware of the need to develop that skill or competence.
2. Conscious Incompetence: Uh oh….the brain recognizes it has a deficiency and that it needs to be fixed. The person in step number one realizes that during an interview you can’t wear shorts, talk on your cell phone, or bring a triple baconater to eat (even if you offer the interviewer a bite). This person didn’t land the job. But, he learned something. He became aware. His lack of skill is conscious now and he must take steps to develop that skill. There is an awareness of where he is now and where he ought to be in the future.
3. Conscious Competence: Time to start practicing that skill. The person now meets with a career coach, reads some books, does mock interviews and consciously tries to practice the new skill with concentration and focus. After a while he will be able to interview, but at first he will be thinking about it during the entire process. He thinks to himself: “What is my greatest weakness? OK, on this question she wants me to tell her a weakness, describe that weakness, and then tell how I’m trying to work on it. Here I go….” After continued practice, the interviewer moves to the Unconscious Competence stage.
4. Unconscious Competence: The brain has the skill down now, it’s natural. In this stage the brain has developed the competence at such a level that the ability to execute the skill has become internalized and second nature. When asked “What is your greatest weakness?” the interviewee answers fairly effortlessly. He has practiced this question enough to where he trusts himself and his brain to respond without a great consideration of thought; he can perform the skill of interviewing now without having to think about next steps.
Assess yourself – where are you in your skill of interviewing? Are you unsure of what an interview entails (Unconscious Incompetence)? Maybe you know you need to interview, but aren’t sure where to start (Conscious Incompetence)? Have you practiced interviewing and used techniques to help you through the process (Conscious Incompetence)? Is interviewing fairly effortless to you – are you at a point where you respond to questions in a conversational tone without a bullet point of thoughts running through your mind (Unconscious Competence)?
I’d be glad to discuss interviewing with you over lunch – I’ll be having the big, delicious cheeseburger.
References: Agarwal, S. (2010, June 29). Achieving Enlightened Competence. Retrieved from http://brainblogger.com/2010/06/29/achieving-enlightened-competence/.
