Your Guide to Learning More Effectively
Everything you never learned about learning
“I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that people think you’re a weak communicator,” I say offhandedly to the executive sitting across from me.
From his face, I can tell it does, in fact, come as quite a surprise.
I’d just delivered this new information without a hint of elegance, under the impression that he’d heard it before. Peers on his leadership team had stated it bluntly and repeatedly to me during our conversations.
Pro Tip: People will routinely overestimate how clearly they have delivered feedback to others… Don’t learn this the way I did.
The executive has quite abruptly discovered he is Not Good at Something, making an unwilling and painful leap on the competency ladder from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence.
What is the competency ladder?
Also known as the four stages of competence, the competency ladder represents the four distinct psychological stages of learning a new skill.
Like this disembodied hand, you too can become good at things.
Learning new things is uncomfortable.
I’ll explain why later.
Sometimes we know what we don’t know.
For instance, I know next to nothing about armadillos, and I’m fine with that. If an armadillo expert told me, “you know nothing about armadillos,” it would not be a significant blow to my confidence.
This is probably an armadillo but I may never know.
However, I fancy myself to be quite a fashionista, so if someone told me, “you dress like a first grader whose parents are empowering them to pick out their own school clothes,” I’d be pretty indignant.
If, after reviewing my wardrobe choices, I realised the fashion police were right, I’d have just made the soul crushing leap from unconscious incompetence (I didn’t know I was bad at something) to conscious incompetence (I’m still bad at it, but now I’m painfully aware).
I could then begin to seek out tools to help me make the next leap in our competency ladder, conscious competence, where I can dress myself but have to really think about it to get it right.
For our executive friend, practicing conscious competence might include a flurry of post-it note reminders on the bevel of his monitor (Pause for questions! Invite input!), enlisting a speaking coach to help him prepare for presentations, and ruthlessly editing his written communications.
Note the word practicing. Conscious competence is an active state of learning, which requires effort and repetition.
Finally, we would both arrive at the final step, unconscious competence.
At this stage, the skill is engrained, meaning we can execute it without thinking deeply about it. I can put together killer outfits in my sleep, and the executive can now orate effectively to a group without obsessing over every detail.
Unconscious competence is like learning to drive a car: you no longer have to determine which pedal is brake and which is gas consciously; it’s muscle memory.
The competency ladder is a powerful reminder:
that we learn things in stages,
that we don’t all know everything,
and that we can learn new things.
I started reviewing the ladder at the top of training modules with the warning:
Some of you are about to find out you’re bad at something you didn’t even know existed yesterday, but, together, we’re going to come out the other side.
The warning helps because, as previously mentioned, learning is scary.
Enter The Learning Zone
Whereas the competency ladder showcases how we learn about our knowledge gaps and overcome them, the learning zone model addresses how our emotions impact our ability to learn.
The learning zone model consists of three distinct emotional states: comfort, stretch, and panic.
I made this diagram for you, dear reader.
The comfort zone is a state of psychological ease where the subject feels neutral and in control.
This is an ideal state for day-to-day life, but it isn’t where learning takes place.
The stretch zone, aka the growth zone, is where the magic happens. It’s called the stretch zone because it forces you slightly out of your comfort zone and requires you to face something unfamiliar.
When presented with unfamiliarity, fear is activated in the emotional brain. It’s a completely natural response developed from human evolution.
The good news is, a little bit of fear triggers us to be more aware, curious, and present in the moment: a perfect scenario for learning.
However, it’s a delicate balance. With too much new information too quickly, someone can easily slip into the panic zone.
When in the panic zone, the subject is overwhelmed, anxious, and may even shut down. Learning is impossible in this state.
Benefits and Challenges of the Learning Zone
Everyone’s learning tolerance is unique, so it’s important to recognize the capacity of the person being taught. A poorly timed criticism or too much information at once can push someone into the panic zone, at which point progress screeches to a halt.
Similarly, everyone’s stretch zone is consistently evolving. As new information is processed, it becomes familiar and won’t elicit the same fear response next time around.
Entering our stretch zones builds our tolerance to new information, dulling the negative impacts of our fear response and expanding our ability to learn more.
That’s why it’s important to continuously challenge ourselves and learn new things. In many ways, our neural pathways require “exercise” to remain healthy.
“Getting into the stretch zone is good for you,” Ms. Ryan says in This Year I Will… “It helps keep your brain healthy. It turns out that unless we continue to learn new things, which challenges our brains to create new pathways, they literally begin to atrophy, which may result in dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other brain diseases.”
Why is the learning zone model important in management?
While the model is most often used for educational purposes, it’s also beneficial for establishing psychological safety during challenging situations or difficult conversations.
People are most receptive to feedback while in the stretch zone, where they’re energized and open to challenges.
Tip into the panic zone, and they’re likely to become defensive, angry, or despondent.
When people are in this zone it becomes physically impossible for them to process new information and feedback. If the person you’re talking to enters this zone, it’s best to take a break and resume your conversation later.
How to keep someone in the stretch zone to optimize learning:
#1) START SMALL
Ms. Ryan recommends tiny, continuous improvements to keep a subject in the learning zone.
Small steps are less overwhelming for the learner, and information is more easily digested and retained in smaller chunks.
This is backed by the concept of spaced repetition, a simple yet effective practice to systematically remind ourselves of new information over an extended period of time.
You can think of spaced repetition as a way to “hack” your learning memory. Since we are more likely to recall something we learned recently, systematic repetition increases the time we can correctly remember the information.
Tying it all together, spaced repetition can help you graduate from conscious competence to unconscious competence.
Remember this diagram from the Your Brain is Not Your Friend blog?
#2) UNDERSTAND YOUR STUDENT
Before you can effectively teach someone, you need to understand them and approach them with empathy.
Explore what type of learner they are. Ask them how they best retain information: is it through guided practice, visuals, or auditory learning?
Understand the limits of their stretch zone. This will be learned through trial and error. Don’t worry; if you push someone into the panic zone, it’s not too late to take a break and return to the subject later.
#3) APPROACH LEARNING WITH OPTIMISM
As we’ve covered, learning can be uncomfortable. That is especially true when providing feedback or constructive criticism.
That’s why, whether teaching someone about armadillos or introducing why they’re a poor communicator, it’s best to do so with a focus on the positive outcomes.
By focusing on the benefits, improvements, and capabilities of the student, you’re able to keep them comfortable and open to learning.
While challenging, learning can also be fun.
“You cannot have innovation unless you are willing and able to move through the unknown and go from curiosity to wonder.” — Markova, The Learning Zone Co-Researcher
Apply it Today
Onboarding: It shouldn’t be sink or swim
When designing learning programs for yourself or others, having the right increments is crucial so that the learner stays in the stretch zone throughout. This principle is especially handy when designing an onboarding program.
When we fail to think intentionally about onboarding new employees, the resulting first weeks are frequently described as a firehose.
Onboarding new talent is crucial for introducing the employee to your company culture, expectations, and your management style.
Doing a poor job (or no job at all) in designing an educational onboarding experience kills confidence and results in frustration, both for the person learning and the manager who needs them up to speed yesterday.
Instead, you can use the steps above to develop an onboarding process that benefits your new employee and entire team.
Need help developing an impactful onboarding experience for new hires?
Or, maybe, you need an educational session created for your team on a specific workplace topic.
I’ve got you covered! Let’s get to work.
