– Bernie Kelly –
Is that strength that has served me so well still useful?
When we find something that works, really works, it is natural for us to keep using that strength.
A strength repeatedly used becomes stronger.
Eventually it becomes so strong we do not even need to think about it.
This is what psychologists call Unconscious Competence.
Unconscious Competence is at the top of the Hierarchy of Competence. Management trainer Martin M. Broadwell described the model as “the four levels of teaching” in February 1969.[1] Paul R. Curtiss and Phillip W. Warren mentioned the model in their 1973 book The Dynamics of Life Skills Coaching. The model was used at Gordon Training International by its employee Noel Burch in the 1970s; there it was called the “four stages for learning any new skill”.
The pyramid view is useful, until it is not.
We set directions, measures, resource priorities. We adhere to governance and operational disciplines.
These are all default patterns. Unconscious.
In my work to create the conditions for effective Business Transformation my clients are often surprised at the extent of default patterns that we bring to the surface.
See default patterns that do not serve.
Intercepting default patterns that are no longer useful is not a conscious practice around most Board or Executive tables.
Seeing and intercepting default patterns is hard work.
Building fitness of muscles to see and intercept our default patterns that are no longer useful is foundational work for any Executive team serious about their accountability for leading business transformation.
“Pay attention to when the thing you’re chasing exceeds its usefulness.”
Nearly everything in life is unfavorable once it grows to a certain size.”
