Beyond unconsciously competent Pt.2: keep in the flow

In the Beyond unconsciously competent Pt.1: Now what? we looked at “Flow” taken from the book “Flow – The psychology of optimal experience” written by Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and discussed how it could be applied in the training world.

In this second and final part we will look at what his model means in relation to on-going learning and why the conscious competence model doesn’t allow people to get any better than unconsciously competent.

In his book Mihaly introduces us to Alex who has just started playing tennis. We (you) are his trainers.

Move to A4 to keep your learners in the flow

In the model Alex will start at position A1. He can hit the ball over the net most of the time but that’s it.

He has low skill and will not be able to perform any of tennis’s more challenging techniques. However, although the best that Alex can do is hit the ball over the net this will probably be enough to get him into flow; at least for a short while. And he may become unconsciously competent at it. (Not exactly Wimbledon though is it?)

At this initial stage, if we try to push Alex to perform any of the more complex tennis skills he will move towards A3 and become anxious because he can’t yet do it. This may lead to frustration and he may quit because “it’s just too darned hard”

If we leave Alex as he is for too long he will start to move towards A2 and, as he gets better (even unconsciously competent), he will get bored. He may quit tennis altogether because it’s “just too darned dull!”

Alex will want to move towards A4 (improving performance while remaining in flow) so, as his trainers, we will need to increase the level of challenge as Alex increases his level of skill. We might do this by introducing Alex to more competent playing partners as he gets better at tennis.

challenge, consolidate and push again to keep your learners in the flow

By the time Alex can hit the ball over the net and place the ball wherever he wants on the court his model might look like this.

Alex’s A1 position has moved up as he is now more skilled and can cope with more challenge but if we leave him as he is or push him too hard he will still move towards A2 or A3.

As being in flow feels great, Alex will be most motivated by challenges that are one step ahead of his skill. As his trainers we will need to feed that motivation with tougher challenges or he may still quit believing tennis was cool for a while but it got boring (anything sounding familiar yet?)

This is a very dynamic approach to learning and development and as Mihaly says:

One cannot enjoy doing the same thing at the same level for too long. We grow either bored or frustrated: and then the desire to enjoy ourselves again pushes us to stretch our skills or to discover new opportunities for using them

This need for constant challenge and push is not addressed by the conscious competence model. We are left at the unconsciously competent level to grow old, bored, apathy seeps in and we end up performing at a level below where we were.

For some people this sums up their career. They were once really good but without any additional stretch or development they became bored and apathetic.

For some others of us however this is not an acceptable situation. We will seek out new challenges or new skills to keep ourselves in flow. And if our organisation / manager / career can’t or won’t let us, we will move on to where we can get the things we need for our “flow fix”.

For managers this has a profound impact on why we need to keep the team members motivated and how training and development is such a great way to do it.

And for trainers, it gives us a simple way to demonstrate that stretching people during our sessions is crucial to keeping them in flow so that they have a rewarding and pleasurable experience and not an anxious or boring one.

The way that we do that during our sessions will be a separate posting in the future: when we will look at the proportion of time facilitators spend in front of the group as opposed to amongst the group and how to make best use of the time we have with them.

'bored' headstone image by phoenixdailyphoto

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