‽istis reclaims competence
(weekending June 19th 2021)
As Trump/Biden comparisons are perhaps made across
the global stage (G7, NATO, Geneva); as the penalty-shooting record of Europe’s
footballers is reviewed; as the track record of at least one ennobled potential
applicant for the top NHS England admin[i]
job is scrutinised publicly; as ‘WhatsApp’[ii]
messages to and from the UK Prime Minister and a one-time chief adviser (with
language that may reveal something about professional ethics and values and not
a little personal vulgaris, inlepidus or rudis) enter the public domain and maybe
raise questions both about the appointed ones and the appointee…
…‽istis ponders competence and learning
theory - and wonders about insight; awareness; the appraisal by others;
evidence; development processes and capacity for change; about progression,
regression, digression or transgression.[iii]
Four stages and combinations of ‘in/competence’ and ‘un/consciousness’ are proposed in a model whose origins are a little uncertain[iv]:
Unconscious incompetence
Unconscious competence Conscious incompetence
Conscious
competence
Should you care to, just look up ‘competence
cycle’ or similar in any search engine[v],
for example).
But this week ‽istis wonders:
‽ whether
ignorance of one’s ineffectiveness, failure, inability can ever be blissful
unless perhaps one has no responsibilities and one’s actions, thoughts or
feelings impact on no-one else? Explanations may abound but may never excuse? Unconscious
incompetence… how difficult it may be to
avoid naming those people that come to mind and, by very definition, how
impossible might it be to name oneself…?
‽ how
uncomfortable might those moments of self- or other-revelation be? When the view
in the mirror reveals a naked Emperor, when the scales fall from the eyes, when
criticism is recognised and accepted, when the evidence of failings or failure and
the impact (and one’s own role and responsibility) can no longer be denied? Conscious
incompetence… and ‽istis thinks of those painful moments; good for the moral
fibre? humiliating and humbling? perhaps points of learning? possibly a springboard
for better (or maybe resignation or despair)…?
‽ practice
and praxis: over and over again; striving for perfection or at least getting it
right sufficiently unto the day, the job, the task. Conscious
competence… aware of what works and why;
able to explain and share and teach and keep learning…?
‽ just getting
it right; perhaps no longer knowing how; practice or just natural ability seems
to have made perfect or near enough… but
no time for laurel-resting lest the cycle goes round again with time and the
moving on of the world, of needs, of demands; perhaps, possibly, maybe there
lurks the hazard of a fresh, prefixing ‘in-‘ being added to the competence…?
Competence and consciousness… and this week (leaving aside for another week reflections on another possible dynamic and balance: competence v confidence) ‽istis thinks: where am I? how
would I know? and what might be the consequences?
©
Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to
this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily
indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders
[i] v
clinical?
[ii]
Other social media platforms are available
[iii]
Though some of this may have to wait for future blog entries…
[iv]
But https://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/conscious-competence-learning-model/
cites perhaps the earliest reference as: 'Teaching for Learning' by Martin M
Broadwell, dated 20 February 1969, in The Gospel Guardian, an American
Christian periodical published from the 1950s-1970s.
[v]
…the competence and effectiveness of which is remarkable, but its consciousness
perhaps hidden within algorithms beyond the wit of most of us
