Are Your Employees “Unconsciously Incompetent?”
A great thinker once said, “true wisdom is knowing what you don’t know.”
That thinker? Confucius. Or was it Socrates? Or maybe it was my aunt Brenda. Who knows who said it—and isn’t that what make us all truly wise?
Whoever said it, they would have had a great mind for workforce compliance, where one’s ability to recognize gaps and question assumptions can save one’s organization from untold penalties, legal fees, reputational damage, and employee turnover. But how can those of us who work in compliance spread this kind of parano—I mean, healthy curiosity—to the other members of our teams?
Ulrik Juul Christensen, a learning expert and executive chairman of Area9 Group, writes that the first step is to recognize and admit that we’re “unconsciously incompetent” in our jobs roughly 30% of the time:
“[H]ow does a company, manager or individual employee correct a competency gap about which no one is aware? As a physician who studies brain function, biological variation and how people learn, I have some suggestions. The first step is to get ‘unconscious incompetence’ on the learning agenda.
Corporate training programs need to be redesigned to better engage learners and empower them to admit what they don’t know. Too many online training modules miss the mark here because they rely on static content, which most people try to click through as quickly as possible, especially if they think they already know it. These programs also make assumptions about what students understand and where they need reinforcement, offering a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that’s highly ineffective since every learner is different, with variations in knowledge, experiences, background and the ability to take in new information, even from moment to moment.”
Rather than cudgeling employees with a “one-size-fits-all” training model, writes Christensen, organizations should invest in a customized approach that’s “molded to each person’s needs by probing what they know and don’t know,” and “offers[s] tailored content as the learner performs well or struggles.”
Read “How to Teach Employees Skills They Don’t Know They Lack” at Harvard Business Review.
We’ve covered different learning styles in depth on this blog, exploring the differences between visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. As we’ve discovered, there are as many ways to understand information as there are to present it.
That’s why Compli’s scenario-based learning modules help learners understand laws and regulations that apply to their jobs. Our courses also feature high-level interactivity and video-based content designed to hold learners’ interest and keep them engaged. With optimized learning, you’ll reach more employees at more points in time, for a better transfer from learning to job performance. Learn more—about learning more—here.
