Over the last few years I moved my consulting from a 100% focus on Microsoft 365 apps and services to learning and strategy for any technology. I’ve worked with custom software across multiple industries and teams, strategy for new products, and working with clients to boost productivity in general.

This week, I stepped back into the Google world. I haven’t used an account in the Google platform for a while, and boy have I felt it!

Existing solely in one ecosystem is great. It is comfortable.

You know what you are dealing with, and what to expect. It’s not always simple – just think about the ongoing onslaught of enhancements in M365 alone and how it can feel exhausting. But even with constant updates and change, you can navigate around minor impacts and generally stick to what you know in order to function daily.

We have our work ecosystem, our identity and apps in our personal life, and things in between.

For me it has been M365 at home for decades. For work I have moved between that and Google, with the last time I was working in a ‘Google house’ being about 2010. Gee the years go fast!

Beyond work and home (for me) is my kids and the platforms chosen by organisations, committees, family etc. Places like swim school, childcare, and other classes may share a google doc or email communication around. I also have to navigate the Google platform for my kids school, and have had many frustrations with Chromebooks during home school. You deal with it, you cope, and even at times roll your eyes at how small businesses or committee’s operate. I personally get frustrated when the dance school sends links to Google docs and I have to navigate their shared folders and clunky use of the platform. But I have my moments and just move on with life.

Over the last week while working with this new client I now have my own account in their platform… gmail, google docs, google meets..

While it hurt my head a little, I’m working out the equivalent functions and features to complete work, collaborate and communicate for this engagement.

The impact of shifting between ecosystems or workplace learning

You may have heard of the Conscious Competence Model of Learning, or the Hierarchy of Competence. In psychology it’s known as the Four Stages of Competence.
It’s the stages we move through when becoming competent at a new skill. With most skills we begin with being incompetent, and often we know and feel this incompetence. It takes work to become competent and feel that you are progressing and know how to do the new skill. With many things you can eventually use the skill on autopilot, which is when the skill has moved to something we complete with unconscious competence. The model is below:

When talking about this model, I often refer to the easy example – brushing your teeth. We all (I assume!) do this task with unconscious competence. And we’ve done so for many years through early learning and mastery of this skill. I am sure you can think of other skills you do without much thinking or effort. I know I often look back to confirm I locked my car, because when I complete the exit process (of turn engine off, grab bag and exit) I don’t recall locking it because the flow of actions is so automatic that I do it without much conscious thought.

Many skills don’t take much thought or practice, whereas for some the phase of struggle and discomfort of sucking at that new skill is more obvious and painful. We hate feeling bad at things. When we are shown new tech at work, or things at home, not many people like the conscious confusion and the level of effort to plod their way through new things.

It’s especially worse in the workplace when people around you pick things up quickly and you are the one taking a bit longer. It can help people deal with the discomfort by knowing a bit more about the journey they are going through, or simply providing support and motivation through that hard phase towards skill mastery.

Cognitive Load and impact on our technology experience

In addition to the feelings of incompetence and the journey of mastering a new skill, Cognitive Load Theory can provide insight into the employee experience. New features or products can be painful to integrate seamlessly into our work day. Not only is it about how we feel during the change, but the way it is rolled out, particularly our experience of the learning, can at times add unnecessary load.

We experience cognitive load in multiple ways. It’s related to the effort associated with a topic, the way the information or tasks are presented to us, and the work we have to put into transferring the knowledge or skill to the permanent storage in our brain.
The way content and learning is designed directly impacts how easily it is absorbed. We have to ‘attend’ to information and ‘process it’ in our working memory in that moment. How well we do this has many facets. For example, if we are under high stress or there is too much ‘visual noise’, both can impact ease of processing increasing the mental load on us while trying to learn. It’s complex, and different for every person, but crucial to workplace change and learning programs. And it’s not just about the load we put on people, but also the load they add to themselves. Being distracted with your smartphone while watching content in your workplace LMS, increases your own load. Multi-tasking while trying to process content reduces effectiveness of learning new information and skills.

Understanding cognitive load can help us apply the ideas to how we teach and communicate with employees, learn more about it: Cognitive Load Theory (Definition + Examples) – Practical Psychology (practicalpie.com)

When it comes to how we are learning and applying new skills, we can think about the Four Stages of Competence, and Cognitive Load Theory, when building a strategy for change or organisational learning. I find it interesting with unconscious incompetence being a stage where some people are unaware of how little they know, at times being unaware of their incompetence. For example, many people haven’t worked much with AI or ChatGPT. Those that have it as part of their work toolkit and rely on it daily see colleagues missing out on its ability to help at work. Non-users are ignorant to its power and ease of use. Some deny the usefulness of it, making assumptions, while others see value but know they lack the skill or knowledge to gain benefit. This is an interesting mix of unconscious and conscious incompetence of that tool and skill across colleagues in a single workplace.

We can have a very different experience with a type of technology, an overall platform like M365 vs Google, or just a small feature that is released.

When learning new things people will struggle for a moment, or even longer. Some people will take time to understand the new thing, try using or doing it, perhaps struggle more and when they push through the discomfort they then may eventually enjoy using and love the new thing.

Eventually, when we become unconsciously competent at the skill, we are able to use it without much thought on autopilot, just like brushing your teeth or riding a bike.

Is this good for my brain?

I hate change, but know it’s good for me.

Stagnating doesn’t help us grow. Enhancing how we work in a particular ecosystem, adapting to new features, or learning new programs flexes that muscle in our heads. Our brains.
The brain is a muscle we can train and exercise just like other areas of the body. It has remarkable ability to adapt and change – neuroplasticity – which we can explore in another blog. In short though, exercise is good.

So, as much as change with tech at work or in your personal life is annoying, I think using different platforms and experiencing conscious incompetence at times is healthy and helps keep our brains strong. Try sucking at something and persisting to learn that skill. You may actually feel good about it.

Remember:
 

F.A.I.L =

FIRST

ATTEMPT

IN

LEARNING

Doing something badly is opportunity for doing it more until you are great at it and the skill is merged into your daily toolkit, with little conscious effort. I have always loved the quote ‘a comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing grows there’.
The discomfort with learning is pushing us out of our comfort zone, and is hard. But it sure is worth it!