The Hierarchy of Competence

The hierarchy of competence is sometimes also referred to as the stages of learning. These are the psychological stages of learning or acquiring a new skill. Mr. Noel Burch used it at Gordon Training International in the 1970s' as a training model for its employees.

I came across this while reading a book by mental game coach Dr. Jared Tendler called The Mental Game of Poker. I found it very interesting and realized that we could apply this in learning to play the guitar, because technically, what we are really doing is acquiring the new skillset of playing an instrument.

As you can see in the diagram, acquiring a new skill is gradual progress that starts from being unconscious incompetent and ends at unconscious competence when mastery is achieved.

1] Unconscious Incompetence

This is the beginner stage. You have just come across the guitar or seen someone play, and you like it! You want to play it, yet you do not where to start though. Because at this stage you do not even know what you do not know. At the start of acquiring any new skill, we will start in the Unconscious Incompetence stage of learning. The baby steps start and the learning begins.

2] Conscious Incompetence

As you start practicing your new skill set and begin learning the ins and outs of the instrument, you will reach the stage where you are now aware of the things that you do not know. This is the intermediary level where you continue to practice, practice, practice because you now know what you do not know.

3] Conscious Competence

This is the proficient stage. Now the guitarist is able to fully apply the skill set he has been learning. He is able to utilize the skills along with the knowledge, but it still requires a conscious effort to use these skills.

4] Unconscious Competence

The last stage of acquiring a skill. The guitar player has become so proficient that he is able to perform those skills without any conscious effort. This is also known as the stage of mastery.

We all go through these practical stages when we learn any new skill. It could be learning to fly a kite or learning to dive, this model is applicable in all sorts of scenarios and has been used as a training guide for new employees in a company.

Let's take the example of learning to drive or ride a bike. When you are a young kid, dreaming about the day he/she would be able to do it themselves, we are at the stage of Unconscious Incompetence. We have no idea how to make the bike even start. After asking older siblings and asking friends or from your parents you start learning to find out how to ride a bike. Now we enter the second phase; Conscious Incompetence. We now know that there are many things you do not know yet to start riding a bike. Back to practicing. Then through hard work and dedication, you reach the Conscious Competence level. Where you are now able to ride a bike with no problem, but it does require his full concentration and effort. And finally, you become Unconsciously Competence where you are able to ride the bike with no second thought at all. Some call it being in the auto-pilot mode. Think about your own experience and try to relate it to that experience.

Before we wind up I want to conclude with one important factor. When you are in the later stages of learning, like conscious competence, you might not see a huge improvement, you might feel this way as you reach the mastery stage as well. That's not true! Your skill is becoming effortless Like in our previous example of riding a bike, ask yourself, how do you ride your bike? You do not know because it's so much ingrained in your subconscious you can do it without any thought. It does not mean you are not progressing or not improving.

Thus now you know the four stages of learning and how it can apply on your new adventure learning to play the guitar, what are you waiting for, take those baby steps towards mastery now!!