EN 
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“Learning never exhausts the mind.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
This article is for all of us who are experiencing the Dunning-Kruger effect, have experienced it, or will experience it. And if you aren’t concerned, you should be!
What’s in This Article?
- A Story and a Harsh Lesson
- Competency, Complacency, and the Dunning-Kruger Effect
- Seven Levels of Skills – Before and After
- Four Stages of Learning
- Outflanking Dunning-Kruger
- A Summary and a Challenge!
A Story and a Harsh Lesson
I will immodestly state, while simultaneously suffering from and defying Imposter Syndrome, that some years ago I was the “go to” person for our organization’s demos. If it was an important opportunity, it was “Call for Cohan!” I flew across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific delivering thousands of demos to prospects, customers, partners, and third parties, and enjoyed unrelenting accolades from my sales colleagues. Very frequently my demos “sealed the deal!”
I was at the top of my game. My demos were smooth, polished, precise, and practically perfect (or so I thought)! Until…
Until I became the prospect and was on the receiving end of demos from vendors asking me for hundreds of thousands of dollars in license fees. Then the scales fell from my eyes!
That’s when I suddenly realized I was standing firmly atop “Mt. Stupid.” There was an enormous amount about demos that I didn’t know!
What had happened?
I’d moved to a new position founding and leading a business unit and was growing a sales and presales team to the point where we needed a CRM system. We invited several vendors to present demos of their offerings.
Of the vendors solicited, only two held discovery conversations with my team, focused on confirming that we had “pain.” While the two vendors who did do some discovery performed slightly better, all the vendors’ demos were traditional end-to-end, show-everything, non-conversational, two-hour-long, agonizing Odysseys. They were perfect examples of stunningly awful harbor tour demos!
After suffering through these demos from a prospect’s perspective, two things became very clear:
- Those vendors who did little or no discovery were disqualified extremely rapidly.
- All the vendors’ demos followed a traditional, end-to-end, linear approach.
But there was something else that was even worse!
I realized that we were doing the same things. We were doing insufficient discovery (because our technology was so cool!) and we were presenting boring, traditional, end-to-end demos that “saved the best stuff for last.” We loved our products and wanted to show our prospects everything!
After the experience with the CRM vendors, I gathered the team together and said, “Folks, I have bad news. If you felt that the discovery done by these vendors was insufficient and that the demos we just saw were painfully bad, guess what? We’ve been doing the same thing to our prospects…! We need to make two major changes:
- We need to approach discovery from the perspective of what our prospects need us to know before we propose any ‘solutions.’
- We need to turn our demos upside down and Do the Last Thing First.”
These revelations resulted in substantially rearchitecting our discovery and demonstration processes. And, while it was sobering to realize that we were just as bad as other vendors, it was even more painful to realize that we never would have known it until we became the prospect!
Why does this happen?
Competency, Complacency, and the Dunning-Kruger Effect
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
– Galileo Galilei
Prior to the painful revelation above, I believed that I was truly at the top of my demo delivery game. It turned out that while I was decidedly skilled at communicating the advantages of our capabilities, I was merely competent in terms of demo effectiveness!
Worse, I had grown complacent and had ceased to explore alternative approaches to my demos. I was focused on the least valuable phase of change, refinement: very small improvements that yielded little or no additional value.
I was sitting firmly atop Mt. Stupid! The Dunning-Kruger effect takes place when a person believes they are more competent that they actually are (and often ceases to continue to learn).
This effect takes place frequently in people who have been in a role for several years and are perceived by themselves (and others, in many cases) as highly competent and effective. Presales folks who have three-to-five years of experience are frequent victims and those who have been promoted into front-line manager positions are even more susceptible!
It can be extremely hard to recognize the Dunning-Kruger affliction in oneself. It often takes an outside push, such as my case in the story above, to recognize the ailment and pursue a solution!
This article is written for all of us who are experiencing Dunning-Kruger, have experienced it, or (take a breath!) will experience it!
Is the Dunning-Kruger effect real? Oh, yes!
Seven Levels of Skills – Before and After
At the beginning of Great Demo! and Doing Discovery Workshops I often introduce seven levels of skills and ask the participants to rate themselves. Most participants mark themselves as operating at Levels 4-6 (where Level 7 is the highest).
At the close of these Workshops, I ask participants to rank themselves again. This time, they have downgraded their level of competence to Levels 2-3. The “beginning” assessment is Dunning-Kruger at work!
Why does it happen?
Four Stages of Learning
“If knowledge is power, knowing what we don’t know is wisdom. We learn more from people who challenge our thought process than those who affirm our conclusions.”
– Adam M. Grant
There are four stages that people go through when learning new concepts, skills, and practices:
- Unconsciously Incompetent: They don’t realize that there are problems with their skills and practices. Very simply, they don’t know what they don’t know!
- Consciously Incompetent: They realize that there are problems, but they don’t know how to address them. This is when training and/or mentoring have the greatest impact.
- Consciously Competent: They now understand how to address their problems but must consciously think about the new practices and skills to apply them. They are in a phase of ongoing improvement and need to be supported by active coaching.
- Unconsciously Competent: They no longer need to think about their actions and are able to act automatically. They are at the top of their game… Or are they?
One would think that Stage 4 is optimal, but it may only represent a waypoint in a person’s learning journey: It may simply be another Mt. Stupid!
This is why I continually exhort my team, my colleagues, my customers, and myself to “Never Stop Learning!” It is only through the recognition that “there must be much that I don’t know” that we can escape Dunning-Kruger!
What are other ways to combat Dunning-Kruger?
Outflanking Dunning-Kruger
“It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
– Mark Twain
First, we need to admit that the effect and its impact are real! This alone can take some major mental manipulation. Consider the following phrases:
- “This is the way we’ve always done it…”
- “Things are working just fine…”
- “I’m at the top of my game…” (Rarely uttered, but frequently thought!)
- “I’m making my numbers…”
- “I’m achieving my objectives…”
- “I just earned a promotion…”
- “I just earned a raise…”
And here are a few more subtle forms:
- “Oh, I continually work to refine my practice…” (But only in very small ways.)
- “I’m open to new ideas…” (But I don’t take action.)
- “New is not necessarily better…” (I’m very comfortable with my current way.)
- “Why don’t you give it a try…? (But I won’t!)
Each of these communicate satisfaction with status quo and resistance to change. After all, if things are going well (or appear to be going well), why should you contemplate change?
In the world of products, one of the best strategies is to be your own competitor: It should be your new product that disrupts the status quo and surpasses your existing product. In other words, if a product is going to out-compete your existing offering, it is best if that new product is yours, as well!
The same principle applies to skills and practices. The best situation is where your new, superior practices replace the old ones (before your competition does)!
For most of us to even try something new, we consciously or unconsciously examine the associated risk-reward equation: “If I do try this, what is the likely outcome? What is the best possible result? What is the worst possible result? What happens if I do nothing…?”
If the equation doesn’t show a sufficient gain with low or acceptable risk, we tend not to pursue the change. For example, “If I try a new demo technique and it fails, we might lose the business!” That’s a severe disincentive!
The Technology Adoption Curve applies to acquiring and practicing new skills and methods, in addition to products: The same principles apply! Innovators represent only 2.5% of the population and Early Adopters comprise 13.5%, so only 16% of us naturally embrace exploring and trying new ideas. That’s about one person in six, a distinct minority.
Not surprising, then, is that about the same sixteen percent of presales and sales folks actually adopt the practices rolled out in organizations’ annual training efforts. Everyone else is in a “wait and see” mode.
It’s like people considering jumping into a pool that might be a bit cold. If the 16% who leapt into the water appear to be enjoying cool refreshment (resounding success), only then will the Early Majority enter the pool (and they’ll do so carefully!). The Late Majority will cautiously test the water with their toes but will not get wet unless they are pushed! And, of course, the Laggards wouldn’t be caught dead near the water at all.
A Summary and a Challenge!
“If you think training is expensive, try ignorance.”
– Peter Drucker
Recognizing that you or your team are suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect may be an important first step. Have you made any significant changes to your practices over the past few months? Past year? Past several years? In the answer is “No, not really,” or “Well, we keep tuning things,” then you may be near or at the summit of Mt. Stupid
You can use internal or external skills assessments to determine your position on the skills development curve. Here are two examples, one for demonstration skills and one for discovery skills. An honest assessment may yield surprises and corresponding opportunities!
With respect to learning and changing, there are five possibilities:
- You can not learn and not change.
- You can learn and not change.
- You can change and not learn.
- You can change and learn.
- You can learn and change.
It’s your choice!
To learn the methods introduced above, consider enrolling in a Doing Discovery or Great Demo! Workshop. For more demo and discovery tips, best practices, tools and techniques, explore our books, blog and articles on the Resources pages of our website at GreatDemo.com and join the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group to learn from others and share your experiences.