Moving from novice to expert and all this bits in between | by Helen Portman

Have you ever heard of the four stages of competence? These stages describe the process everyone goes through when learning a new skill, and I first came across them in a book about growth mindsets. Originally introduced in a 1960 management book by William Berliner and James Cribbin, the model has been applicable in various aspects of my life, particularly in learning different sports.

I was never a sporty child and didn’t  and as an adult, I never really enjoyed any sports or activity. Like many people when COVID-19 hit I decided to try running again- and I really enjoyed it! Was I good at it, no. Was I fast, definitely not! But it probably saved me in those long, strange months. When we came out of COVID I was desperate to see actual real people so decided to try aerial hoop classes. I was not a natural at aerial arts, but I stuck with it and decided to try weightlifting to improve my upper body strengthThis led to which led to joining a women’s only weightlifting and cross-fit gym. I definitely wasn’t a natural at any of that (burpees are my personal idea of hell) but I loved feeling stronger, and the community was great. Somehow at the start of this year, I decided it would be a great idea to try Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I now spend two hours a week letting much younger, much fitter people throw me around a mat and sit on me. I’m not naturally good at any of these things. Starting on the apprenticeship has been much the same. I started as someone who didn’t like maths, then discovered a real passion for data however it doesn’t necessarily come naturally to me. 

In this blog, I'll discuss how sports and using the stages of competency have helped me overcome learning hurdles. I hope you find these insights useful and can relate to similar experiences in your own learning journey.

1 - It's ok to suck.

The first time I tried to hike myself into an aerial hoop I thought someone was going to have to get me a step ladder. The first time I tried a bench press I got trapped beneath an empty bar and roughly two minutes into the warmup at my first jiu-jitsu class I realised two things. That I can no longer do a forward roll and that I was going to suck at this. 

When we started the module on SQL, and I felt like we’d shifted into some sort of parallel universe complete with its own language, I was able to think back to all the times I’ve been unable to do something and push past that initial sense of embarrassment. The thing is,it’s that sense of embarrassment that’s makes you give up, that makes you want to throw in your gym shoes. The thing to remember is that:

A - Sucking is just the inevitable first step on the journey 
B - Other people really don’t care, they’re focused on their own journey

And most importantly,

C - You’re already making progress!

At this stage, you’re moving from the first phase of the four stages of competency to the next phase - from unconscious incompetence, where you don’t know what you don’t know onto the next phase of conscious incompetence. And this is where things can get hard(er).

2 - It gets worse, then better, then maybe worse again.

So at this stage, you realise just how much you don’t know. You’re faced with this enormous mountain of things that you don’t know. You have no idea how you’ll ever do any of these lifts, or moves, or understand any of the programming language in front of you. At this stage, you need to remember that it’s a process. And it will get better. Promise. 

But what do you do when faced with the uphill struggle of learning something new? The first thing is to try not to panic. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint! The next thing is to try and break it down- just focus on the next thing you need to learn. And don’t think about the next step until you’ve completed that one. This stage can make you feel helpless but one thing I’ve learnt from sport is that only you can drive yourself forward to get better. Knowing that no one else can do the work for you gives me the push I need to take ownership. It’s my responsibility to find the resources, the people, the places etc to help me improve. If there’s a training program, I’m the only one that can make me stick to it, no one else. If I’m struggling with a part of the apprenticeship, then it’s time to focus on that skill and find as many different resources and ways to review that skill as possible. 

Remember that improving at any skill often comes in peaks and troughs- just when you think you’ve mastered something you realise you’ve only scratched the surface. 

3 - Sometimes you just need somebody. But not just anybody. 

The right coach and the right team around you are invaluable. Being ready to listen and act on what a coach tells you is essential. I recently spent a good 20 minutes trying to get a move down, but it just wasn’t right. As the frustration started to rise, I stopped, asked the coach to watch and with a tiny adjustment to hand position, I got it. It can be even more difficult when you think you’re doing something right and the coach corrects you, it’s easy to fall into bad habits and correcting these takes a lot of energy. So go slow and listen to your coach!

Equally finding a group that’s both supportive but also happy to give you a push when needed will make learning and improving more enjoyable and easier. Identifying when you need a specialist can also help. When my knee started giving me trouble, I got myself booked in to see a sports physio, listened to their advice and, most importantly, made sure I did the prescribed exercises. If you’ve got a particular sticking point, then a specialist might just be able to give you the push you need to get you over the line. Be ready to listen, learn and never be afraid to shout up and ask for an explanation, if you’re wondering about something I can almost guarantee someone else in the room has the same question but isn’t comfortable speaking up. 

4 - No pain doesn’t necessarily = no gain

Like exercise, learning doesn’t have to be painful! School PE put my off exercise for many years and it took finding the right types of exercise for me to make it fun again. In the same way it’s worth thinking about the best way to learn for you. For me, I learn best when I can just have a go and then look at resources to work out where I’ve gone wrong. The lectures I enjoy the most are when I’m able to follow along with a lecture. If I just listen, then most of it will go in one ear and out the other! Yes, there are inevitably times where it’s going to be a bit of a slog but overall, I try to see learning as something enjoyable in the same way I have to suffer through burpees in order to have fun deadlifting! 
This and the third point are about the process of moving from conscious incompetence to conscious competence. This is a long, slow process and sometimes your confidence can take a real hit. Taking a minute to look back and think about how far you’ve come can really help with this. At the gym, we use an app to track progress in workout times and lifts and looking back to see a lovely graph of how my lifts are improving really helps when I feel like I’m not moving forward at all. 

5 - It’s a marathon, not a sprint. 

This is the final art of the four stages of competence- moving from conscious competence to unconscious competence. It takes a long, long time for new skills of all sorts to become smooth to the point where you’re able to perform them without conscious effort. I remember my first hoop performance, I ran the routine repeatedly until I could do it in my sleep, the transitions between moves just happened and at that point, I could focus on the smaller things. Like pointing my toes rather than not falling off. In the same way, new skills in learning eventually embed themselves. The first few times you try to load extract, load, and transform in PowerBI you have to consciously think through each step. But after a while, you can move smoothly through these steps. 

I hope you’ve found some of this useful and maybe a little reassuring if you feel like you’re the only one beginning to realise just how much you don’t know! And if all else fails I’d suggest channelling your inner Dory and “just keep swimming” we’ll get there in the end! 

Hello! Or as we like to say in this part of Lancashire “ey up love”. Based in a beautiful but rather chilly part of Lancashire right on the Yorkshire border, I work in the local government as a housing policy officer. At work, I’m passionate about coffee, decent gluten- free  biscuits and the impact of housing on individuals, families, and communities. Outside of work, you’ll generally find me running in the local hills, hanging from an aerial hoop, playing DnD with a group of friends or attempting DIY on a house that has not a single straight edge or right angle!

I hope to inspire fellow data and number sceptics to develop a love of data and to share my passion for housing with as many fellow students as possible