Map the sub-steps before judging the task
Before deciding a task is too hard for you, list the sub-steps it needs and note which must happen in a fixed order.
Pourquoi ça marche
The 2007 introduction says: “One major basis for this developmental theory is task analysis.” The application below is this page’s own: using task analysis on a personal task to find which coordinating step is blocking you. The introduction does not make that claim. This page infers that once the sub-steps are visible, the difficulty can be located in one specific step rather than in the task as a whole.
Comment faire
- Write the task as one plain sentence describing what finished looks like.
- List every sub-step you would have to complete to get there, one per line.
- Mark which sub-steps must happen before others.
- Find the sub-step that has to combine two or more others. That is where the difficulty most likely sits.
- Check whether you have done the simpler sub-steps successfully before, then decide what to work on first.
Données probantes
The 2007 introduction names task analysis as one major basis for the model. The 2014 paper postulates that the orders form an ordinal scale (steps that rank tasks but are not necessarily equal in size) and tests their spacing. Neither tests this practice, which is this page’s application. (mechanistic)
The model says task structure sets difficulty. It does not show that writing sub-steps down improves anyone’s performance.
Sources
- Commons, M. L. (2007). Introduction to the model of hierarchical complexity. Behavioral Development Bulletin, 13(1), 1–6.
- Commons, M. L., Li, E. Y., Richardson, A. M., Gane-McCalla, R., Barker, C. D., & Tuladhar, C. T. (2014). Does the model of hierarchical complexity produce significant gaps between orders and are the orders equally spaced? Journal of Applied Measurement, 15(4).
Erreur fréquente
Treating the whole task as one undifferentiated block, then concluding you are incapable of it when the real gap is one missing sub-step.
Pratiquez cela avec IX Coach
Plus de pratiques pour The Model of Hierarchical Complexity, Explained
- Practice the step that combines two skills you already have
When you can do two things separately but not together, practice the single move that decides how they fit.
- Tell apart too much information from too little connection
Separate having too many items to hold from having the items but not yet knowing how they relate.
- Practice the simpler skill underneath a failing one
When a harder version keeps collapsing, go back and practice the basic action it is built on, by itself.
- Define what finished looks like for each step
Decide in advance what a completed step looks like, because a step is either done correctly or not done at all.
- Step up a level when one frame keeps repeating
When the same failure keeps coming back, place your current way of seeing the problem inside a larger system of ways to see it.
Concepts associés
- Zone proximale de développement : apprendre à sa vraie limite
Viser l'écart entre ce que vous pouvez faire seul et ce que vous pouvez faire avec un accompagnement
- Le modèle de Dreyfus : cinq étapes du novice à l'expert
Des règles à l'intuition — les cinq étapes et comment les traverser
- La théorie de la charge cognitive : apprendre dans les limites de la mémoire de travail
Les limites de la mémoire de travail, les trois types de charge cognitive, et comment apprendre et enseigner en les respectant
- La théorie sujet-objet de Kegan, en pratique
Passer d'être mené par ses présupposés à pouvoir les examiner
- Terri O’Fallon’s STAGES Model, Made Practical
Twelve stages built from three repeating questions, and how to work with the one you are in
- Torbert’s Seven Action Logics of Leadership
Seven ways leaders make sense of pressure, how common each is, and how to work with your own