Chief Learning Officer - September 2007 - (Page 4)

editor’s letter A Word to the Wise Like most boys, I wasn’t always a stellar student. But I was smart — or at least I thought I was. I clearly remember the afternoon I brought home a failing grade on a big history test. My mother wanted an explanation for my poor performance. In what seemed like a flash of brilliance at the time, I told her she just didn’t understand how difficult the subject was because there was so much more history for me to learn than there was way back when she was a girl. Needless to say, her reaction to my clever reasoning was not at all what I had expected. Ironically, my rationale for that bad grade has come back to haunt me. The pace of historymaking events and discoveries has accelerated so rapidly, it’s become difficult for mere mortals of any age to keep up. Mapping the human genome, nanotechnology, string theory — as the author and syndicated cartoonist Ashleigh Brilliant once said, “There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about.” Science isn’t the only arena in which galloping complexity compromises our ability to know everything we need to know to make the grade — previous generations of business executives didn’t have to understand and respond to the impact of terrorism, pandemics and global unemployment. Being smart is no longer enough if you want to succeed in business. In his latest book, “Know-How,” Ram Charan suggests there is a crucial difference between the appearance of leadership and the actual ability to run a 21st-century enterprise. He says know-how is what distinguishes leaders who deliver results from those who don’t. It’s the capacity to take the organization in the right direction, make the right decisions and leave the people and the business better off than they were. Or, to paraphrase Peter Drucker, it’s the ability to do the right thing. I have a slightly different take: I think business success depends on leaders with wisdom. Intelligence is a wonderful gift when you think about it, and it separates us from most other species. But being highly intelligent doesn’t mean a person is wise — at least not by my definition. Many business leaders today are intelligent, but not all of them are wise. For those who genuinely earn that distinction, their most important ability is acknowledging what they don’t know. According to the experts, there are two types of cognition. Normal cognition is the ability to retrieve knowledge from memory. Metacognition is the ability to know whether you know. Unless you’re taking a history test, metacognition is probably more critical to success in real life. If you know what you don’t know, you’re less likely to make bad decisions based on misplaced confidence in your own intelligence. If you’re aware of your ignorance, you can educate yourself — by definition, learning requires the realization that you don’t know the answers. Leaders with poor metacognition never understand that they don’t understand, nor do they realize what’s missing. And that’s not wise. Surprisingly, I’ve learned a thing or two about wisdom from my grandchildren. Pay attention next time you’re around little kids. They’ll always (or almost always, unless a test grade or missing cookie is involved) admit when they don’t know the answer. Their young minds haven’t been confused by too much information or clouded with ego. I also find wisdom in people who think and act deliberately, despite the need for speed that swirls around them. These wise folks reflect on the issues before making decisions and focus on long-term solutions instead of short-term fixes. I remember hearing how Gandhi often changed his mind in a most public and open way. Once, an aide asked him how he could contradict this week what he had said just last week. The wise man replied that it was because this week, he knew better. There is so much to know in the world that even the most brilliant human minds can grasp only the tiniest fraction. Thus, we should always be in doubt of what we know. I know I am — but if you’d asked my mother, she would have said I was too smart for my own good! I’d love to hear your words of wisdom. Send them to me at Norm@CLOmedia.com. September 2007 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 4 Norm Kamikow Editor in Chief norm@clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - September 2007

Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Strategies Selling up, Selling Down Take Five Imperatives Guest Editorial Learning Solutions Embarking on a Learning Journey Clo Profile Environment CIGNA Service Operations: Making Strategic Change Happen, and Making It Stick Tactics Black & Decker: On-Demand Learning Creation and Consumption Productivity The Army You Have Human Capital Holiday Inn Express: Delivering Critical Training Globally Case Study: Tegan Jones Business Intelligence Case Study: Lisa Rummler Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - September 2007

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