It’s important for us as workers, supervisors, students, or parents, to understand the stages we all go through as we learn new things. It’s also important for us to understand those stages in order to provide the right type of feedback, in the right amounts, at the right time, as we help others go through those stages.

Escondido happens to be the world headquarters for the Ken Blanchard Company. This company specializes in understanding and applying principles around what they refer to as the four learning stages for all types of business and personal growth.

The first stage as “structuring,” where we decide we want to learn something but we have very little understanding as to what we’re getting into. During this stage we need lots of direction but little support, since we are usually excited about it.

The second stage is “resolving,” where we are starting to understand that what we’re getting into is much more complicated or difficult than we first thought. During this stage we tend to want to give up, so we need lots of direction and lots of support.

The third stage is “collaborating,” where we are finally starting to understand the subject, but we are still insecure about it. During this stage we still need a lot of support, but we no longer need much direction.

The final stage is “validating,” where we understand and can perform the task fully on our own. During this stage we don’t need much direction or support, just validation/acknowledgement that the task is being performed.

In summary, we all need to recognize which of the four learning stages we’re in when we try to learn new tasks in order to better understand what’s ahead of us. We also need to try to understand what stage others are in as we watch them learn, so that we can provide them with the right type of feedback, in the right amounts, at the right time.

References

Ken Blanchard Company found at http://www.kenblanchard.com and Dr. Victoria Halsey talk to Miller Elementary.
Blanchard, Ph.D. and Johnson, Spencer. (1983). "The one minute manager". Berkley Publishing. New York NY.
Other related Ken Blanchard books available at http://www.kenblanchard.com/meetcomp/bookfacts.cfm