Behaviour Modelling - Part 4

BECOMING COMPETENT

Once you have made all the observations you can, you need to transfer that behaviour to yourself. Remember, your aim is to master a skill, and a skilled person is able to ‘do what they know’ and ‘know what they are doing’.

To achieve this you must ‘talk the talk’ then ‘walk the walk’; having identified and understood all the skills you need to develop a specific behaviour via a detailed and well-formed model. This means making the mental step of acting as though you have already developed this behaviour. Even though you may still need to acquire particular sub-skills, you should attempt to make this behaviour natural to you. You may feel and appear awkward and superficial in the beginning, but persevere; this is absolutely natural and won’t last forever.

From Here to Competence

Here is a very brief explanation of the process of becoming competent. You don’t need to understand this in great depth to become competent, but it will certainly assist in the process. Refer to the diagram as you read on and it may become a little clearer.

As we develop competence we pass through four states of understanding and ability. Decide where on this cycle you are now, and then you will have a better idea of the next step you will need to take.

Unconscious Incompetence
You don’t realise that you can’t do a task.
You have a lack of awareness and ability.
Conscious Incompetence
You realise that you can’t do a task.
You are aware of your lack of ability.
Conscious Competence
You are aware of the task you are doing.
You are aware of your ability.
Unconscious Competence
You are not aware of the task you are doing.
You no longer need to be aware of your ability.

These states are grouped in two higher processes; both are necessary in becoming competent in any task or behaviour.

Implicit Modelling
(Unconscious Incompetence and Competence)
This is an inductive process, taking in information around us identifying the patterns that make up our world.

Explicit modelling
(Conscious Incompetence and Competence)
This is the process of deduction then description and finally putting these things into practice.

Embedding and Activating Competence

Once competent, you should then embed this new behaviour by creating an ‘anchor’ (also known as performance cues, rituals, triggers) attached to the behaviour you are modelling. With an ‘anchor’ you can reproduce a behaviour at will when it is most needed or if you find it slipping so you can ‘re-set’ yourself. If you are unsure of how to do this, don’t worry, it is a simple process and I will be discussing it separately.

Eventually, when you have all the sub-skills you require and use the new behaviour without thinking, congratulations, you have attained the behaviour you modelled. In other words you have reached a state of ‘Competence’.

Instant Modelling

There is a very quick method of modelling a behaviour if the situation requires it. But this method obviously does not have the depth of change the complete method would give you. To make more significant and ingrained changes takes a little more effort.

1. Imagine your role model or subject standing just in front of you and facing the same way. Visualise that person in relation to the behaviour you need.
2. Take a step forward into your subjects’ shoes so their behaviour becomes a part of you, or let them float backwards into you absorbing their behaviour.
3. Now you can handle the situation using your newly acquired behaviour.

I am sure you have seen a stereotypical possession type ghost movie; it is a little like that (with no ghosts of course). It is quick and works really well. This type of modelling is only a quick fix; so, if you wish to make this behaviour truly yours you must follow the full modelling process as described here.

What ever behaviour you choose to model, have fun and take pleasure in your personal development.