I was reading through an old email where someone send me this email on becoming a competent staff in Facility Management. Previously, I was a equipment engineer for 15 years before transiting to facility management (FM) engineer. An opportunity was given to me in late 2013 and I took a leap of faith. I have moved through the years in my aspiration to become a competent FM Engineer through the 4 stages below.
- The first stage is being unconsciously incompetent. This is where the professional doesn’t know what they don’t know. They understand that they have a lot to learn, but they have no idea where to start.It is in this stage that you are completely worthless to the organization because you are not doing anything to improve.
- The second stage is being consciously incompetent. Here the professional understands everything that they don’t know, but they don’t know how to do it.In the case of FM, you might have read a list of responsibilities but still have no clue about practical application at your facility.In this stage, you start to build value because you know what you need to learn and you actively study it.
- From there, the professional will progress into the third stage of being consciously competent. Now, they understand both what is expected of them and can perform their new skills in a deliberate fashion. They will still need to reference resources, checklists, and training aids, but they can function at their jobs.
- The final stage in the progression is unconscious competence. Here the professional has truly mastered their skill and can perform it without thinking about it as if it was a reflex. This is where you are truly valuable to the organization.In this stage, you are so proficient at the tasks that must get done, you can do them and focus on improving the organization and leading you department strategically at the same time.
I would like to take an opportunity to nurture the new staffs whom had joined. In fact, sharing with one and other will gain our knowledge further. There are still many other competent staffs than me out there but does not share due to many factors that you cannot list in a competitive world.
