It was my first ever winter and naturally, I was excited about building a snowman. ⛄️ As a city girl from hot sunny Singapore, I was totally clueless about it.
In my case, I wasn’t embarrassed about it because I understand about the stages of learning and that asking “how do we build a snowman” is not a silly or embarrassing question.
You see whenever we learn something new or step into a new role, we will go through the four stages of learning or the stages of competence:
- Unconscious Incompetence: I did not know that there is a skill called building a snowman
- Conscious Incompetence: I want to build a snowman but I do not know how.
- Conscious Competence: I spent a very long time building my first snowman.
- Unconscious Competence: Not yet. 😉
Knowing where you are at in terms of the learning stages gives you greater awareness and allows you to excel in mastering new skills.
For this post, I like to focus on the Conscious Incompetence stage. This is the ‘Aha!’ stage, where we recognise both the deficit as well as the value of a new skill(s).
This is where having a #growthmindset is valuable for you and those around you.
You can either choose to ignore this incompetence (no new learning takes place) or decide to do something about it.
In my case, I wanted to build my very first snowman and wasn’t embarrassed to ask for advice.
If someone has an ‘Aha!’ moment and becomes conscious of a lack of skill and approaches you for assistance, your response is very important.
‘This is such a simple thing, and you can’t do it?’ certainly is not encouraging or helpful.
I am grateful that my boyfriend and his friend patiently shared with me how I could build a snowman. They even demonstrated the way to roll a snowball.
In the same way, you too can support someone else’s learning curve by being an encourager at your workplace or at home. When your colleague shares that he or she does not know how to use zoom, what is your response? When your parents ask you to show them how to use video call, what is your response?
Your response will certainly ensure if learning journey becomes an affirmative one or otherwise.
PS: I will attempt a taller snowman the next time and build unconscious competence ☺️