The subject of ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ has come up in several conversations lately. In conversations with people who have transitioned from corporate employee to business owner and people who are in a new role in a business and don’t have experience (like anyone promoted to manage other people). There was also one case study where personal finances were involved and while the individual had money, they had no clue that money sitting in a bank account wasn’t serving them best. These are all examples of unconscious incompetence.
It’s not a bad thing – it’s just something that happens when your current level of knowledge has not yet reached into a certain area. Everyone doesn’t know everything, but when you’re running a business, it’s important to find out what you need to know.
There is a model, originally created by Noel Burch in the 1970s that examines four stages:
- Unconscious incompetence – you have no skill in an area, but are happily ignorant of the fact.
- Conscious incompetence – you know you’re rubbish at a particular skill.
- Conscious competence – you have acquired skill, but have to concentrate to get it right.
- Unconscious competence – the skill has become automatic and you ‘just’ do it.
This applies to everything from learning to walk and talk to a wide range of business skills. If you’d never seen a bicycle before, you wouldn’t know that riding a bicycle was a possibility. That’s unconscious incompetence.
People who have achieved unconscious competence – at the other end of the spectrum – are often surprised that their skills and knowledge isn’t universal. Think of something you do easily, have you ever said “But everyone knows that”? Things we think are commonplace, often aren’t. Imagine what it’s like on the other end of that, where you are clueless!
So how do you find out what you don’t know?
Ask an expert
When you start a new venture or project there will be issues that you have no knowledge of, but that you need to get to grips with to successfully launch your venture or complete the project. The problem is that if you don’t know about these issues, where do you get the necessary enlightenment?
The best way to find out what you need to know is to ask someone who has already been through the process you are about to start. This is one of the reasons why people read books, go on courses and attend webinars.
If you attend networking meetings or network online, there are often people who have relevant experience. Mostly they’re willing to share their knowledge.
Learn and practise
Once you are aware of what you need to know, the next step is to learn – and then practise. A golfer I know once described this as the point where you want to throw the golf clubs in the river!
Just because you know what you need to learn, doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy. It depends what you need to learn, your natural aptitude and how committed you are. You’re in the conscious incompetence phase – and it’s probably going to last for a while.
‘Give me a moment’
Conscious competence comes when you feel you can carry out a task or know how something works, but you still have to concentrate. It’s that point when faced with the task you have to gather your thoughts and focus, then you can get through it with a reasonable level of success.
Don’t stop practising! As the saying goes ‘practice makes perfect’ – or as a friend of mine says ‘perfect practice makes perfect! Practising doing something the wrong way doesn’t make it perfect, you’re just getting good at doing it wrong!
Just coastin’
When you’ve learned something so well that it just happens effortlessly, you’re at the unconscious competence level. This is when someone asks you something and it just comes without thought. You know it instinctively.
You don’t have to know or be able to do everything. There is another option – get someone with the required skills or knowledge on your team and let them shine. However, you do need to know what skills/knowledge you need to succeed, so asking an expert for advice is always a good start.
