categories: staff
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Four Levels of Competency
I’m not sure where this came from or I’d give credit. Someone taught that when you are developing others, there are four levels of competency:
- Unknown incompetence: a team member doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.
- Known incompetence: a team member is starting to learn what he doesn’t know.
- Unknown competence: the person is starting to understand how to do her ministry role but isn’t really aware how good she is.
- Known competence: the person is becoming aware that God has gifted them for this specific role.
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Great observations! The question we all need to answer now is how do we move people from one level to the next?!
Great thoughts.
Straw poll. Where would most of your key support staff fall on this scale?
Blessings,
Jason
Would there be a timeline involved in trying to move people from one competency to another? I would not want a staff member stuck on #1 for 9 months to a year.
The source is two guys from Cornell University, Justin Kruger and David Dunnin. They were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in December 1999. In 2000 they won the Nobel Prize for their efforts. For the record, I have never met either of them; just read the article.
That’s really interesting, I never thought about it like that. Makes a lot of sense though.
Off the top of my head, this reminded me of situational leadership theory.
Andrew, Thanks for connecting us with the source.
Jim, You asked about a time line. It would depend on the person’s experience and the roll. When I’m working with someone, I often show them these four levels. By the end of 30-60 days they should start figuring out which was is up. I’ve found in most of our more challenging roles, it takes about 24 months to hit known competency.
Craig,
Thanks for the insight!
I think I am just entering phase 4 - and I’m 42! Yikes!
Looks a lot like the Johari Window
Found a source for a slightly different take on the same idea here at: http://www.erinhoops.ca/ArticlesFolder/4_phases_of_learning.htm
It credits W. C. Howell - 1982 from the work ‘Information Processing and Decision Making’ and it mixes the last 2 phases. The model states that a person enters a level of conscious compentence where they can do a task through cognitive recognition before they move to unconscious competence where it just comes naturally.
It’s a good thought but I agree with how you’ve put it in relation to gifts Craig. Thanks again!
John Maxwell talks about this a lot in his books as well. He is probably quoting from the guys at Cornell.
Maxwell also talks about the three phases of quoting someone. They go something like this:
1. Craig Groeschel once said, “Where there is no Chazown, the people perish.”
2. A great man once said, “Where there is no Chazown, the people perish.”
3. I have always said, “Where there is no Chazown, the people perish.”
Hehe - hope the humor is considered on topic…. ^_^
The above material should be credited to William Howell of the University of Minnesota, a well known Communications theorist.
Normally you see Howell’s levels labeled as such:
Unconscious incompetence
Conscious incompetence
Conscious competence
Unconscious competence
The theory is the Conscious Comptence Theory developed originally by Dr. Abraham Maslow (as in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) in the 1940’s. This information was NOT developed by any of the people listed above. It is not a “Christian” idea at all and John Maxwell adapted the information for his book 21 Laws (Law of Process), but he never gave proper attribution. I think it’s terrible that Maxwell ripped off the idea, massaged it a bit and sold it as his own. There are several “laws” in his book that he did this with. I suggest you research or google four stages of learning or the conscious competence theory and see what comes up. Also, a website out of the UK called businessballs.com is a great source on this topic also.