2 responses to “Experience”

1. 

   Matt Franks

   January 11, 2008

   Chris,
   Great post about the importance of experience! I recently talked a little about experience and wisdom on Orrin’s blog and I thought it would make sense to share it here since it is relevant to what we are learning here on this subject.
   At one of the Leadership Conventions Laurie Woodward made a statement that has really stood out to me about gaining experience and wisdom: “The lesson continues until the lesson is learned.” That simple yet very profound statement has really helped me look at everything in my life very differently. There is an old cliche’, maybe some of you are familiar with it, that says “experience is the best teacher.” I don’t agree with that at all. I don’t believe “experience is the best teacher,” I believe “evaulated experience is the best teacher.” It does you no good to have experiences that you don’t learn from. In fact if you have not learned anything thing from your experiences, you don’t have experience. That “old cliche” assumes that the only thing needed to have experience is an age to associate with. That is to say, we live our lives in such a way that we aren’t really learning. We’re repeating. How many of know people in your own life that are getting older, but are not getting any better……? Your answer completely proves that cliche’ to be false! That is exactly why I get irratated when someone says things like “you are so young, what type of experience could you possibly have?” As I stated before: Experience doesn’t always come with age, sometimes age comes alone. John Foster Dulles, former Secretary of State said “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.”
   Wisdom requires that we arrange what we observe and know, and create meaning from it, it also requires that we consider what we need to unlearn as well. American essayist Norman Cousins wrote, “Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.” I have discovered in my leadership walk that wisdom is about the thinking through of thoughts, behaviors and actions and seeing their relationships. It is seeing how things are connected. Understanding how everything is connected is a daunting task, but it shouldn’t cause us to stop dead in our tracks full of indecision. We still have to function. Professors Pfeffer and Sutton suggest in their book “Hard Facts”, that “we must travel through life with an attitude of wisdom. That attitude is described as the ability to act with knowledge while doubting what you know.” “This attitude enables people to act on what they already know while at the same time doubting what they know. It means they can do things now, as well as keep learning along the way. It implies a certain degree of humility to make it work. You really have to be able to get out of your own way.”
   So how does one go about acquiring wisdom? It seems very simple but it does take a specific intent to get better! Wisdom is not something a person possesses by default. It’s an attitude that possesses a person. Here are some simple steps to acquire wisdom:
   1. Check your ego at the door – it is impossible to gain wisdom if you think you know it all. John Wooden said “it is what you learn after you know it all that counts.” My advice to an egotist is this; Don’t take yourself too seriously. In fact the entire world, with one minor exception, is comprised of other people. If the only person you see is yourself, in the big picture, you will never see the entire picture!
   2. Develop a learning appetite – knowing is the opposite of learning. Being able to think creatively is the joy of not knowing it all. Learning is a constant prerequisite to leading. If you aren’t a hungry learner how can you ever gain wisdom? The answer is; you can’t! No matter who you come in contact with, regardless of their position in society, they have the ability to teach you something. Some people might teach you things you have always hoped to have learned, while others teach you things that makes you never want to think like them:) Eitherway it is a learning experience! The secret to a healthy learning appetite is to develop the ability to ask great questions.
   3. Put your knowledge into action – In order to pull wisdom out of all that you have learned, you need to put it into action. You have to be willing to step out of the “knowledge comfort zone” and get into the “application zone!” Why? Because it helps you stay relevant and relatable. When your learning is tested you will then know what areas you need to get better in. There is an old chinese proverb that states “knowledge without wisdom is like a load of books on the back of an ass.”
   4. Check and Adjust your thinking – In fact just follow the PDCA cycle. You have to experience some “real world experiences” before you can extract wisdom. Once you begin acquiring wisdom in the areas you are taking on, than you can check and adjust what you are thinking and learning. At this point your are experiencing “evaluated experiences.”
   Thanks Chris! Sorry for the long post, but I hope it helps!
   Best,
   Matt

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2. 

   RichardQ

   January 16, 2008

   The two best results from getting experience is (1) you learn from it & (2) it shows that you got up off the couch and away from the tv long enough to do something whether it was right or wrong you did it.

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