Presented by Intelligent
Education Partner
does not know how to do something and
does not necessarily recognise the deficit.
They may deny the usefulness of the skill.
The individual must recognise their own
incompetence, and the value of the new
skill, before moving on to the next stage.
This usually applies to new staff unaware
of what they don’t know.
Conscious incompetence. Individuals
realise that they don’t know. This is less
risky, as these people will not carry out a
task as they realise they do not know how
to do it.
Conscious competence. They are
capable and know what they are capable
of. An example being those that have
recently passed their driving test.
Unconscious competent. The individual
has had so much practice with a skill that
it has become ‘second nature’ and can be
performed easily without thinking about
it. As a result, the skill can be performed
while executing another task.
However, this hierarchy follows a cyclical
process. It is a fact when people perform
the same role for a period of time, initially
they are highly confident and competent
(the conscious competent) but over time
they sway into the competent unconscious
zone as the role becomes easy. Usually,
these are people that have been in the
role for a long time, yet, due to the on-
going automatic nature of their actions
they could sway into the unconscious
incompetence zone and pose a risk.
Regularly assessing competency is a vital
tool to understand the on-going skill set
and knowledge of the teams. Professional
training, education and development is
a way to continue to develop teams and
make sure that their skill set is maintained
and their knowledge is updated.
Footnotes:
* LogicMonitor IT Outage Impact
Survey 2019 can be downloaded in
full here: www.logicmonitor.com/it-
outage-impact-survey
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
Naturally, education and development do
involve investment, but this spend does
need to be put into perspective. Millions
are spent on data centre equipment – yet
the people who work in a data centre
every day are not considered with the
same importance.
It’s essential that organisations
understand that investment in
professional development is hugely
positive and beneficial to the
organisation and does provide a return on
investment. A competent team reduces
and could mitigate business risk, it
also increases productivity (employee
contribution), and helps with staff
retention and loyalty as employees gain
satisfaction from their job.
Brand value is also enhanced (against the
brand damage that occurs when there
is an outage) and, with a reputation for
on-going staff development, it can attract
new talent.
When considering options for training
of teams, it’s essential to assess the
outcomes and how that will genuinely
benefit the learner and the organisation in
THERE ARE A
FEW MAJOR
ORGANISATIONS
THAT HAVE
RECENTLY
EXPERIENCED
THE COSTLY
AND BRAND
REPUTATION-
DAMAGING
IMPACT AN
OUTAGE CAN
CAUSE.
Andrew Stevens, CEO, CNet Training
the long and short-term. CNet is the only
dedicated industry education provider in
the world to award both qualifications and
certifications.
A programme that awards industry-
recognised qualifications and official
certifications is more valuable.
Qualifications can be mapped across the
world with recognised equivalences, while
certification ensures knowledge is kept
up-to-date via a re-certification process
every three years.
This essential education can be enhanced
further with additional specialist
education, knowledge, skills, mentoring,
competency and confidence interventions
and other professional development
activities to progress careers throughout
the sector.
Finally, think about the cost of just one
minute of a data centre outage and how
this money could be used to educate and
develop people to reduce future outage
risks significantly. With forward-thinking
and development planning, the benefits
far outweigh the potential risks.
CNet created The Global Digital
Infrastructure Education Framework
that offers individuals and organisations
the opportunities to plan technical
education programmes to meet their
exact requirements. See CNet Training’s
website for full details on the Education
Framework and programmes available:
www.cnet-training.com/ ◊
Issue 13
61