Knowledge is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as:

expertise and skill acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject
 

But I can’t agree that knowledge is the acquisition of skill. They are two completely separate concepts. [I also strongly support the notion that a theorectical and a practical understanding are as far apart as the East is from the West, but that's another post. ]Can you think of anyone who has acquired much information of a particular subject either by reading about it or by being exposed to it yet does not have the skill to apply that knowledge?

 Let me give and example: Let’s say I did tons of research about open-heart surgery and acquired much knowledge about the subject and then your situation dictated that you needed this surgery performed immediately. Would you come to me and ask me to perform it or would you seek out someone who not only has the knowledge but who also has the necessary skill to apply their knowledge? … Me too, probably because there’s a huge difference between knowledge and skill.

The accumulation of knowledge for its own sake is a complete waste – unless, of course, you consider that it may make the person doing it feel good. (Pick your own analogy for that one  ) What’s worse are individuals who simply “put their time in”, stagnating in a pool of their own ambivalence, fooling no one but themselves about their own “superior intellect” created by a lack of self respect - an overwhelming need for the good opinion of others. 

There are people in our lives who spend their time prudently, actively and consciencely participating in each present moment while others reach a certain level and then “float”, doing little more than enough to just get by. 

Suppose the first person has spent a few years on-the-job but has deliberately applied themselves and used their spare time in search of practical knowledge to be able to apply it to their work and pass it along to others in the spirit of collaboration and organizational growth. Now suppose the other person spent more time (say even more than twice the time as the first person) in a position, but used every spare moment on the job wasting their time surfing the Internet, playing computer games, or some other such foolishness – attempting to keep what little knowledge they were forced to amass to themselves.

The latter of the two will tell you that you haven’t spent “enough time” to be any good and attempt to hold you back, while the former will notice that it’s the application of intelligent effort that really mattters.  It’s just like 10 year’s experience being immensely different than 1 year’s experience 10 times. 

Put another way, can you think of someone who is successful in a particular area of life but that you also know you’re smarter than they are – yet they’re more successful in this area? I bet you can think of many instances. So what’s the difference? The difference is in their decision to take action on what they know and not let the “potential” go to waste. It’s the same as the electricity in your wall outlet. It won’t do you any good until you plug something into it to do some work.   

Whether discussing electricity, blood, knowledge, money or any other force in life, it’s the flow that gives it worth. If allowed to stagnantly coagulate it will just clot (which in the case of blood can be good in some instances, but not if you’re expecting to get any life from it).

The flow, in knowledge, from one individual to another in what allows us to progress. I was in the plant the other day and our situation mandated that I analyze a certain process that wasn’t functioning properly, locate the potential problem(s), and make necessary corrections. After some time of tracing out the system and implementing the best corrections I could visualize, the process seemed to be slowly correcting but not as much as I would’ve liked.

Someone comes down to make sure I’m doing okay; looks thing over, and although certain details of the situation have changed over the years,  educates me with a few, “You did good here, but what would happen if you did this?” leading questions.  

You can only say that someone “still has it” – whatever the it is – if they’ve ever applied themselves enough to ever get it in the first place. Although he’ll probably tell you different, I’ll tell you flat-out this guy still has it and, for me, it’s one of life’s true joys to be able to learn from someone like that - someone with a practical knowledge; instead of listening to someone who’s simply regurgitating information in an attempt to impress rather than assist or educate.

‘nough said for now…

Tags: Management

Trackback URI | Comments RSS