Knowledge Is Only The Beginning

07 Apr Knowledge Is Only The Beginning

My friend and I took our seat in the car that was shuttling us back to the airport.  He asked if I wanted to hit the bar when we got there – which was stunning.

 

My friend didn’t drink.

 

But I knew what he meant – I felt the same.

 

We were leaving a long, arduous meeting – painful at times.

 

Volatile and occasionally confrontational  – veering from what was meant to be a Business Review to The Great Inquisition and back on more than one occasion.

 

My friend and I had drawn what I refer to now as The Short Stick – a euphemistic way of describing that period in every person’s career when we find ourselves saddled with – how can I put this delicately – a questionable leader.

 

And if anyone reading this blog hasn’t – well, you have my undying admiration. I strongly suggest you start buying lottery tickets at your local gas station beginning today – you’re on a hot streak.

 

In our case, as sales leaders we knew what to expect long before we arrived.  We had invested days preparing to deliver Business Plan Updates – and rehearsing for the questions that would be asked by a panel of “experts” whose mission seemed to be to pick apart every slide –question every tactic – debate every initiative.

 

It had become commonplace at that point in our company – the Quarterly Plan Reviews delivered before the business equivalent of a judicial panel – and always with one Alpha present who would be the final voice that proclaimed guilt or innocence.

 

I had friends that lived in mortal fear of the Business Reviews – and literally invested almost all their time preparing for them. Like a military commander who decided that the real enemy was internal – forgetting that the battle was out there in the field – they became committed to winning the Dress Inspection.

 

Their business suffered greatly.

 

In the years since I’ve reflected on just how a well-intentioned initiative could have spiraled so terribly – how relatively senior professionals could have become so compromised by the dark clouds above that they had allowed their common sense to be hijacked.

 

My travel companion offered me a bit of insight that day.

 

After his tongue in cheek reference to liquid refreshments he added, “ XXXX is probably the smartest person I have ever worked for…. and the worst leader.”

 

I smiled when he said it.  I smile now because I suspect it was probably all too true.

 

In point of fact I fear it’s endemic in a great many companies – scratch their surface and you’ll find a lot of smart people – well grounded academically.

 

Intellectually gifted.

 

But you’ll have to dig a lot deeper – look a lot longer – to find the wise.

 

Knowledge is acquaintance with facts, data, information, and principles.  It can be gained by a variety of sources – to include books, classrooms, the Internet, and even job assignments.

 

Not so when it comes to wisdom.

 

The Portal

 

“Knowledge is knowing what to say. Wisdom is knowing when to say it.”

 

Simply knowing doesn’t grant us the gift of wisdom. If it did our world would be a much safer – more harmonious place.

 

Knowledge precedes wisdom – but it doesn’t guarantee its birth.

 

The crystal ball that transforms “simply knowing” into something more has a name.

 

It’s called INSIGHT – the capacity to develop a deep and intuitive understanding – and then to apply that understanding in a way that expands it.

 

Judgment.

 

Discernment.

 

Perspective.

 

Wisdom.  

 

Open Your Mouth and Say Ah

 

Horace Wells is forgotten to history.  He was a dentist back in the 1800s who one day attended a most unusual exhibition at a local convention center – The Effects of Nitrous Oxide or Laughing Gas – a hilarious demonstration of how this seemingly innocuous gas could make otherwise normal people react in rather absurd ways.  The room was packed – but only one person noticed when the local apothecary clerk fell into a table and then onto the floor and rise seemingly unaffected.  Hours later, when Wells examined the man, he found pronounced bruising – but the patient professed he had felt no pain.

 

The next day Wells self administered Nitrous Oxide and insisted one of his dental partners extract a tooth.  He experienced no discomfort.

 

And so did anesthesia enter our world.

 

Knowledge that the gas was potent and had unusual effects was apparent to all. But the insight required to apply this to the field of medical care came down to one person – and it’s Horace Wells’ wisdom that forever changed things.

 

Data and information can lead to knowledge. But only insight built on the shoulders of knowledge can carry us to wisdom.

 

 

The Short Stick

 

Somewhere along the way I decided that the truly wise enjoy gifts the rest of us don’t intuitively command – they observe; they listen for the unsaid; they seek first to understand.

 

We craft the foundation for knowledge with any number of learning resources – but wisdom can only be born from experience.

 

And even then, few of us manage to capture the magic of insight.

 

My days of The Short Stick are long gone.

 

I learned a couple of things.

 

I remind myself that those Business Reviews were very necessary – every company needs to assess strategy and execution.  But they were compromised by very human insecurities and became instead a Kiss the Ring exercise – a Dog and Pony Show.

 

We wrapped ourselves around the data – debated it to the point of exhaustion – hoping to appease a very smart “leader” with the self-awareness of a potted plant.

 

 

The Insight

 

We’re each challenged when it comes to this concept of authentic wisdom – especially in a world in which we are surrounded by data and information.  It swirls around us like a hive of honeybees – swarming us; overwhelming us.

 

As I sit here at my desk my eyes scan the books and articles I’ve stockpiled over the decades – the electronic files that dominate storage on my laptop – most of them on the subject of leadership.

 

I pride myself on that extensive library – even as I reconcile a larger truth.

 

Knowledge is everywhere.

 

But then again, so is stupidity.

 

I cannot count myself among the truly wise but I can continue to strive – and to hope that someday my judgment reflects more than just my library.

 

And as regards my time(s) with The Short Stick.

 

I’m grateful.

 

Insight, I’ve decided, can be at its most brilliant in times of crisis.

 

 

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

– Albert Einstein