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.

Behaviour Modelling - Part 3

MODELLING BEHAVIOUR


Method

To model a behaviour we need as much information as we can gather. There are a variety of methods we can employ to gather this information. Interviews and questionnaires are limited as they often omit key data and/or make assumptions. Simulating behaviour is a step improvement. Without doubt, live observation of the behaviour itself and interaction with the subject is by far the best and most accurate method. Try to observe the behaviour as many times as you can in a variety of situations.

Record what you have seen and learnt in a method you most prefer; writing notes, dicta-phone, video etc. Do this as you make the observations or as soon as you can afterwards. Note that the more time that elapses before you record what you saw the more detail and clarity will be lost.

Perspectives of Observation

When making your observations there are three perspectives or positions you can assume. Accurate modelling requires you assume at least two of these position but preferably all three for the best results.

Observer’s perspectives / positions:
1. Your own point of view
2. Another person’s point of view
3. Unconnected outside observer’s point of view

You can also make the observation as a whole system, the ‘rational field’. Or to synthesise the perspective of all the other three positions.

Quite often an expert will be behaving unconsciously, they often do not even realise they are doing certain things or why they do them. It can be very challenging modelling this type of unconscious behaviour, as they cannot tell you much about it at all.

Behaviour Modelling - Part 2

BUILDING A BEHAVIOUR MODEL


Preparation

Here are some typical reasons you might wish to use behaviour modelling.

1. To simulate the high performance of others.
2. To achieve a specific goal or task.
3. To understand a process in greater depth.

Be very clear about the reasons you have decided to model a behaviour.

Identify the person who you wish to base your model on. Select them carefully. Make sure that they perform the behaviour you wish to develop and you have a reasonable amount of access to information surrounding them and the behaviour/s you wish to model (personal contact is preferable). I will refer to this person as the ‘subject’.

Remember you can have as many subjects as you like, but model each of them separately and do not generalise. If you generalise you are more likely to miss the key to the desired behaviour.

So, to model behaviour you must identify particular key elements. Ask these questions and record your results. The more accurate and detailed you are with your data the better model you can build.

1. What are the subject’s goals?
2. How does the subject measure progress towards their goals?
3. What are the choices the subject uses and how do they action them?
4. How does the subject respond if the goal is not achieved?

Identifying Skills

All skills are made up of other skills - ‘sub-skills’. For example, driving a car requires knowledge of legislation, road use, hand / eye coordination, some basic mechanical understanding, starting / controlling / stopping a vehicle and so on. To develop each of these sub-skills, in turn, requires further sub-skills, some of which you may already have.

This is known as ‘chunking’ down. These ‘chunks’ of information make up the higher-level skill you are aiming to develop. I will discus ‘chunking’ information and how it relates to learning and our short-term memory another time.

There are three types of skills:
Behavioural - (what we do / action)
Cognitive - (how we think / thought processes)
Linguistic - (what we say / use of language)
There are two levels to each of these skills:
Simple - (takes seconds to minutes to identify)
Complex - (takes sustained observation to identify)

So in all there are a total of six categories of skills.
Simple Behavioural
Simple Cognitive
Simple Linguistic
Complex Behavioural
Complex Cognitive
Complex Linguistic

It is obviously easier and quicker to model the simple skills than the more difficult complex skills. So it makes sense to model the simple skills first. Remember that it may be necessary to chunk down these skills into their sub-skills, particularly the complex ones.

Behaviour Modelling - Part 1

WHAT IS BEHAVIOUR MODELLING


Behaviour modelling is how to analyse and adopt the exceptional behaviour of others. I will try to give you a clear and simple tool you can use without the psychology lesson others insist upon. I will only give a little background if I think it is absolutely necessary for your understanding.

What is a Model?

Here are some relevant definitions of modelling.

1. Process in which a particular behaviour is elicited by the observation of similar behaviour in others.
2. A standard or example for imitation or comparison.
3. A representation, generally in miniature, to show the construction or appearance of something.
4. A pattern or mode of structure or formation.
5. A typical form or style.
6. A prototype, archetype, mould or original.

I quite like ‘paragon’ to describe modelling.
Paragon; A model or pattern of excellence or of a particular excellence
Paragon-ed/ing/s; To compare; To parallel; To equal; To match

It doesn’t really matter which of these definitions you prefer (if any) as long as you get the idea of what a model is.

N.L.P. Behaviour Modelling

A good ‘behaviour model’ is a map of what a person does and thinks to achieve a given result, it is an examination and record of an individuals key behaviours. A model is only as valuable as it is useful. If a model isn’t very effective, or of use, there is little reason in having or trying to apply it.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) was born out of modelling human behaviours and thinking processes. NLP has identified the link between how our brain works (Neuro) and the language (Linguistic) and other non-verbal forms of communication that we use. Develop a process or program to simulate the desired behaviours (Programming).

NLP is all about pursuing human excellence through observing and breaking down what people think and do into its constituent parts. Then, reproducing these behaviours to achieve a specific outcome.