Training Through the “Four Stages” of Learning /10-22-2014

Feb 11, 2015

A good friend and fellow construction trainer, Jay Wetterhus, shared with me a learning model that was developed years ago. Initially described as “Four Stages of Learning Any New Skill,” this theory was developed by Noah Burch during the 1970s. What I’d like to share with you is the significance of these four stages in training and educating our workers, especially at this time in construction history.

Let me first share what Mr. Burch’s original stages of learning were and then I’ll share the translation to how I’ve adapted this to my own efforts when developing and leading training workshops with contractors. The stages can assist you and your company on how you present the training of new techniques, skills etc. to your workers.

Also called The Four Stages of Competence, the Mr. Burch’s four stages are:

Stage 1. Unconscious Incompetence

Stage 2. Conscious Incompetence

Stage 3. Conscious Competence

Stage 4. Unconscious Competence

Translated for perhaps a clearer interpretation, I might suggest the following.

Stage 1. Unconscious of What I Don’t Know

Stage 2. Consciously Aware of What I Don’t Know

Stage 3. Consciously Aware of What I Do Know

Stage 4. Unconscious about What I’ve Learned (i.e. “I do it without thinking about it.”)

Why are the four stages significant to contractors when it comes to training their workers? In many cases contractors have little patience when it comes to educating new workers. What any contractor must understand is that many of today’s new workers have little to no construction knowledge, much less know how to handle a tool needed to execute their work. As one contractor shared with me, “Some of the new hourly laborers don’t know the difference between a flat-edge screwdriver and a crescent wrench.”

Unfortunately, this observation might not be too far from the truth. But the question that must be addressed by contractors looking to hire a percentage of new workers who have little to no construction experience is, “How do I make training new workers more successful by using the ‘four stages’?” Let’s look at the four stages and perhaps shed some light on this very real and needed issue for most contractors.

Stage 1. Unconscious of What I Don’t Know

This first stage is quite telling of many new and inexperienced workers new to any industry and especially construction. This worker does not understand or know how to do something and does not even recognize this deficit. Before the worker can move forward to learning any new skill, he must “own” his own incompetence and realize the value of developing the new skill, before moving on to the next stage where the first steps of learning take place.

Quite honestly, the time that a new worker stays in this first stage is sometimes dependent on the intensity of the stimulus to learn. This “stimulus to learn” can be the worker’s need to work for pay or the overwhelming push and encouragement provided by the contractor or trainer.

So, what’s a trainer to do with employees in this stage? The biggest effort must be made to move the worker into Stage 3 if possible by demonstrating the skill required. The trainer must also demonstrate the benefit executing the skill, as trained, will bring to the worker. Let me give a simple example.

Every carpenter demonstrates his control of holding a hammer to pound nails by holding the hammer near the end of the handle versus down close to the actual head of the hammer. Holding a hammer in this manner allows the carpenter to maximize the potential force exerted by the steel head. Yet watch even a young child grab a hammer and he will most often grab the hammer, often with two hands, down near the steel head…making small repetitive hits rather than the two or three hits (sometimes even just one hit) an experienced carpenter needs to drive the nail home.

In this example, the new worker who has never held a hammer, not to mention used a hammer to drive nails, is not even aware (Unconscious) of what they don’t know how to do (Incompetence).

Now, moving a new worker to Stage 3 (Consciously Aware of What I Do Know) might not always be possible. While not every worker has to move through Stage 2 first, for most new workers the transition through Stage 2 is often experienced by even the fastest of learners. So, let’s look at Stage 2 next.

Stage 2. Consciously Aware of What I Don’t Know

It is during Stage 2 that a new worker becomes aware that the skill he needs to learn is important to his work and to keeping his job. At this time most new workers will grasp that he is not very good at this new skill. The good news here is that most workers will begin to see the benefit to them if they will learn the new skill as it will make their job effort more effective, win them more support from their trainer, and satisfy more of their co-workers who are frustrated with the lack of skill development.

The best effort that any trainer of construction-oriented skills can make is to help the new worker in retain the skill. This will require repetition of the skill practiced by the new worker. To use our previous hammer example, the trainer would create a learning environment where the new worker might practice driving nails…over and over and over.

Another training technique that I’ve used personally and taught to countless others is to practice what I call the “Watch-Do.” Not difficult at all to learn and use. This simply requires a trainer to demonstrate the skill, allowing the new worker to “watch” the demonstration. Next, the new worker then performs the same effort (“Do”) while the trainer observes (“Watch”) the effort made by the new worker. The trainer observes and comments on the technique used by the new worker and suggests what the worker can adjust to improve.

What is important to identify in Stage 2 is the desirability of the new worker to learn the new skill and to practice, practice and practice! It is in this Stage 2 area that many contractors get frustrated if they do not see a new worker with the right attitude to improve his skills.

Admittedly, it is critical for any new worker to make the extra learning effort, sometimes on his or her own, to master a specific skill or technique. I remember when first learning to lay out PVC ground pipe for homes that my contractor gave me “samples” of pipes and joints to take home so I could practice fitting the pieces together. He also kept me after work in the early days to learn how to properly and safely put a sweat weld on copper pipes. No different than learning how to throw a baseball better or to swing a golf club, practice really does make perfect…or at least makes you better!

Of course an observation that many contractors have made about many new workers, and shared with me, is that many of the new workers often do not want to spend the extra time to become more effective at a technique or skill. This, of course, can be a work ethic issue but a contractor must continue to encourage the new worker to stay with his practice and to realize that everyone, when they first learned a new skill, made mistakes.

Well, moving a new worker from this second stage is crucial if there is to be any real success with developing new workers. So, we’ll look at Stages 3 and 4 in our next article. But until then, consider a few things from our first two stages of learning.

Unless new workers have grown up around the more mechanical aspects of equipment, the use of tools etc. they are likely to be completely “clueless” about anything in the construction industry.
Most of the effort in Stage 1 is really provided by the trainer – not the new worker. The trainer must be prepared to be patient, to demonstrate and to realize that he might need to demonstrate the same skill or technique not once, or twice, but perhaps three to four times before the new worker even gets a feel for what is needed.
Stage 2 must incorporate two things: practice by the new worker and constant coaching and encouragement by the trainer. Sure, the new worker must want to improve, but the trainer may influence this desire if he can make the training fun and beneficial to the new worker.

As contractors and trainers…here’s to being “consciously competent” about moving new workers to want to learn!

Good luck.

Brad Humphrey