By Ulrik Juul Christensen
AFTER spending billions of dollars a year on corporate learning, US companies probably assume that their employees have the knowledge and skills they need to carry out their jobs. But according to data from industries including academia, health care, technology, manufacturing, retail, sports and business services, people are actually “unconsciously incompetent” in a typical 20 percent to 40 percent of areas critical to their performance.
But how 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.
Better learning models are instead adaptive—that is, molded to each person’s needs by probing what they know and don’t know, then offering tailored content as the learner performs well, or struggles. When e-learning is individualized in this way, learners can still speed through material, but only that which they’ve already mastered. And when they reach anything that challenges them, they get more support.
When being tested, learners should also be pushed to rate the confidence of their answers. Consider, for example, a trainee who scores 40 out of 50 on a proficiency test. Her trainer should make sure she focuses not just on the 10 misses, but also any correct answers that she can admit were lucky guesses. When corporate learning programs prompt employees to admit to that they’re guessing, they, too, begin to see the previously hidden gaps in their skills and knowledge.
Another strategy is to promote a culture of continuous improvement. A great example comes from the aviation industry. Pilots are trained in the latest aircraft and procedures using simulators, which test their skills and abilities, and uncover unconscious incompetence. In addition, information from “near-miss” data (incidents or errors that nearly cause an accident) can be used to inform training. The result is “predictive safety” that relies heavily on the reporting of these mistakes.
Organizations can only address unconscious incompetence with more adaptive, individualized corporate learning programs and by promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
Ulrik Juul Christensen is the executive chairman of Area9 Group.