I had a great holiday in America a few weeks ago with my wife and brother, touring New England. I was particularly pleased when I picked up my rental car to find it was a Jeep Patriot - a very chunky looking 4 x 4, just the sort of thing I could see myself driving round America in.
What I'd forgotten was how stressful it is to drive abroad!
Actually, driving in America is relatively easy. The roads are long and straight. There are virtually no roundabouts, just junctions with lights. Compared to the UK, the roads are pretty quiet.
But, of course, things are still very different.
I was sitting in the "wrong" side of the car, I had to look right instead of left to see the rear mirror and the controls were on the "wrong" side.
I was driving on the "wrong" side of the road!
Traffic lights hang down from overhead instead of being mounted on poles.
You can turn right on a red light (sometimes) if there are no pedestrians crossing.
We covered 6 states in 2 weeks but the state I most remember was the state of anxiety.
The reason being, I spent the two weeks in a condition that is sometimes called "conscious competence". This is where you have to really concentrate on what you're doing all the time.
Suddenly, it was as if I was learning to drive again. I knew what to do but I had to focus and think about it. If I had to turn left from the highway into a side road, I just had to think about it for a second to make sure I was in the right place and turned into the right lane.
I found I was concentrating so much on watching where I was going that I forgot to look in the rear mirror. I felt slightly nervous taking my hand off the wheel to turn the radio on or glancing across to the satnav.
I wasn't sweating with panic or anything, I just wasn't ever completely relaxed about it.
And then, having driven over 1,000 miles across New England, I had an accident in a deserted car park where mine was the only vehicle there.
I was reversing into a parking space next to a wall and staring into the wing mirror to make sure I was far enough away from the wall beside me. I completely forgot to check in the rear mirror, where I would have noticed the air conditioning unit attached to the wall behind me getting closer and closer. The first I knew about it was when I heard an almighty crash and the sound of shattering glass.
What does my experience tell you about learning?
Being in a state of "conscious competence", which is very common when you learn a new skill, is quite stressful. As a trainer, you should be aware that your learners may be feeling anxious during this phase of learning.
Even when you have learned a skill to the extent that you can perform it routinely, changing the conditions in which you perform it can take you back to the learning stage. If you are teaching people skills, you may need to give them support to help them transfer those skills to new situations.
Being in the "conscious competence" stage can make you prone to mistakes because your attention is so fixed on certain elements of the task that you can miss others. If you are supervising people who are trying to apply newly-learned skills (or to apply their skills to new situations), be prepared for them to make mistakes.
What I'd forgotten was how stressful it is to drive abroad!
Actually, driving in America is relatively easy. The roads are long and straight. There are virtually no roundabouts, just junctions with lights. Compared to the UK, the roads are pretty quiet.
But, of course, things are still very different.
I was sitting in the "wrong" side of the car, I had to look right instead of left to see the rear mirror and the controls were on the "wrong" side.
I was driving on the "wrong" side of the road!
Traffic lights hang down from overhead instead of being mounted on poles.
You can turn right on a red light (sometimes) if there are no pedestrians crossing.
We covered 6 states in 2 weeks but the state I most remember was the state of anxiety.
The reason being, I spent the two weeks in a condition that is sometimes called "conscious competence". This is where you have to really concentrate on what you're doing all the time.
Suddenly, it was as if I was learning to drive again. I knew what to do but I had to focus and think about it. If I had to turn left from the highway into a side road, I just had to think about it for a second to make sure I was in the right place and turned into the right lane.
I found I was concentrating so much on watching where I was going that I forgot to look in the rear mirror. I felt slightly nervous taking my hand off the wheel to turn the radio on or glancing across to the satnav.
I wasn't sweating with panic or anything, I just wasn't ever completely relaxed about it.
And then, having driven over 1,000 miles across New England, I had an accident in a deserted car park where mine was the only vehicle there.
I was reversing into a parking space next to a wall and staring into the wing mirror to make sure I was far enough away from the wall beside me. I completely forgot to check in the rear mirror, where I would have noticed the air conditioning unit attached to the wall behind me getting closer and closer. The first I knew about it was when I heard an almighty crash and the sound of shattering glass.
What does my experience tell you about learning?
Being in a state of "conscious competence", which is very common when you learn a new skill, is quite stressful. As a trainer, you should be aware that your learners may be feeling anxious during this phase of learning.
Even when you have learned a skill to the extent that you can perform it routinely, changing the conditions in which you perform it can take you back to the learning stage. If you are teaching people skills, you may need to give them support to help them transfer those skills to new situations.
Being in the "conscious competence" stage can make you prone to mistakes because your attention is so fixed on certain elements of the task that you can miss others. If you are supervising people who are trying to apply newly-learned skills (or to apply their skills to new situations), be prepared for them to make mistakes.
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