Leaders or managers can often be heard using phrases such as “we need to take a step back on this” or “we need to take a step back and regroup”.
In many cases this can just be a matter of procrastination or maybe a moment of hesitation when looking for some final aspect of reassurance before proceeding.
However, I find this scenario commonplace with many clients and it can sometimes be difficult to progress because you have to unlearn something before learning something else.
Understanding yourself
As a coach, I passionately believe that the key to achievement is understanding yourself better.
Gaining insight into your personal abilities and thinking helps you prepare for situations, process problems and understand how best to formulate solutions.
This concept of moving backwards as a positive action can seem a bit odd to many. However, actually planning to do something and working towards a goal by acting in a conscious way is a positive act. This builds on thinking in other articles I have written about the way we think and the way in which we frame the way we think.
For many people who are deliberately changing the way they act or behave to achieve a better or different result, this strategy is no accident. To be clear: this is not about deception or trickery, which are completely different things. The concept here is a mind-set shift that helps you understand yourself better, so you know when and how to do things.
Conscious competence
The concept is called the conscious competence theory and it focuses on the process and stages of learning a new skill or behaviour, ability or technique.
It is also referred to as the “conscious competence learning model”, or “conscious competence learning theory”, “conscious competence ladder” or even “conscious competence matrix”.
(It is referenced in Neuro Linguistic Programming, NLP, where it is recognised that each mind has its strengths – although NLP focuses more on the unconscious mind).
There is much research and teaching on the way the mind behaves and how the conscious and unconscious mind works in different ways. It is accepted, though, that the power of the mind is more in the unconscious mind than the conscious one.
If you consider the human body as an example, the brain controls everything you do, which is quite a task. For the majority of activities or systems at work in the body (such as the five senses and important tasks such as breathing, pumping blood around or standing up) your brain is just getting on with it, while you do what you do – such as teaching a class of students about climate change, building a wall, cooking a meal, cutting someone’s hair or performing a medical procedure on a patient.
We take all this for granted, because from when we are first born our brains are being stimulated and are developing, learning and growing.
As we learn things, they move into what I call “automatic” mode or the unconscious mind, which is where the vast amounts of things you need to know about or understand exist. The challenge here is determining what is important in the moment, as that is what the conscious mind is focused on.
Sigmund Freud is arguably the person who brought this whole concept to our attention in the 1920’s. His work used the metaphor of an iceberg, where what you see above the waterline is the conscious mind and what exists below the line is the unconscious mind and the mind processes that move thoughts and issues to and fro between the unconscious mind and the conscious mind.
The iceberg is an excellent illustration of the workings of the mind and should provide a visualisation to how we are operating.
There is some disagreement amongst thinkers as to how much the conscious mind can actually do.
Seemingly, in the moment, the conscious mind can only focus on seven things with a variation of plus or minus two either way at any one time. This was referenced by George Miller’s research in the 1950’s.
This gives you some perspective about how things are managed in your mind, as most things are managed by the unconscious mind based on your own set of rules or your own operating system.
Based or framed on your beliefs, values and experience or learning, the operating system is a complex area and can be changed through working with a coach or using self-coaching.
I suspect you’re wondering how this helps you. Let me explain the competency model, which should help you appreciate the opportunity for learning.
Before reading the model, consider something you have recently learnt and now feel you are competent to do or take part in or perform.
As a working example, that I daresay most adults will be able to appreciate, think about your experience of learning to drive a car. I find this example makes the point nicely when I am trying to help clients understand this concept.
Level 1 – Unconscious Incompetence (you don’t know what you don’t know)
At this stage, you are curious as to how to drive a car, you have yet to learn what it takes, and you lack the knowledge to appreciate the task ahead as you have little or no comprehension of the complexity of the multi-tasking required.
Level 2 – Conscious Incompetence (you know what you don’t know)
This is where driver training or instruction has started and you are very aware of what it’s going to take and are trying to cope with everything and getting loads of correction and feedback from your instructor.
Level 3 – Conscious Competence (you know what you know)
At this stage you are demonstrating competence as a safe driver, but there is a high amount of concentration and effort required to make the grade consistently. The standard to be “pass ready” is in sight, but some days you are there and some days you are not. You might be at this stage when you pass the test.
Level 4 – Unconscious Competence (you don’t know what you know – it just seems easy!)
Finally, this is where you should be demonstrating competence and be a safe driver (hopefully qualified!). This is where you enter automatic mode and driving becomes second nature to you – it’s just something you just do. The task of learning is sufficient to progress this to the unconscious mind (although not complete, as we should always consider there is room for improvement in skills and knowledge).
With this example, you also have to consider how, during training and post qualification, you can move backwards in the model and forwards again, learning from your experience.
For instance, when confidence or over confidence in a given situation demonstrates a lack of competence and a consequence is the experience of a near miss or a shock on the road or the damage of a car and/or injury of others.
It’s this learning which illustrates how you can move forwards by stepping back.
When we actually take time to understand ourselves better and gain the insight to become more self-aware, we begin to learn about where we can improve ourselves and what we need to do.
In most learning experiences, practical application doesn’t always demonstrate to you or anyone else your competence or success, as there is a lag in obtaining this information. Although in many situations this can mean you won’t know when you will get feedback, with driving that feedback is immediate.
The point is that making a conscious shift in your mind to do something, or to prevent yourself doing something, will demonstrate competence. It’s moving out of automatic mode and really thinking about what you want to do; it makes the necessary mind-shift to achieve the goal.
We can therefore apply this thinking to other aspects of our life, as we basically spend most of our life in unconscious competence and are seldom in conscious competence or, as some coaches phrase it, “in the moment”.
Use your conscious mind
When we actually take time to understand ourselves better and gain the insight to become more self-aware, we begin to learn about where we can improve ourselves and what we need to do. The remaining step is to consider when we need to activate this switch in our minds and flick across to “manual” or conscious mode.
So, next time you are planning to try and achieve a new goal or improve engagement with a client or colleague, just move into the moment and utilise the power of your conscious mind to help you consider what you really need to do to achieve a win-win.
Once you have formulated a plan, have a chat with yourself to help re-programme your unconscious mind as how to best work this out and consider when best to deploy it. Based on your insight, this should then emerge as a clearer plan as to when this should be deployed; when it does, just really think about what you are trying to do and to achieve.
The results of shifting to being in the moment in the conscious mind may well surprise you.
If you would like to learn more about using your conscious mind and about improving your self-awareness to achieve personal or professional success, please get in touch.
