Today I met with a few of my clients. We had a great time together and mostly covered “old ground.” By the way, have any of you noticed there’s not much new ground around? Moving on.
The melody line for today was a familiar refrain. The melody line was around something we mostly know and often forget. Here it is. Do NOT miss this.
Leaders suffer from the “curse of knowledge.”
FACT.
Once we know something, we cannot remember what it was like not to.
The first time I heard about the curse, officially, was upon reading the Heath Brothers book, Made to Stick. I’ve since identified this problem in the working world more often than I can count. This curse plagues the learned most dramatically.
This produces all sorts of performance problems “down the line.” Remember, down the line is where the real performers mostly live. Capice?
Today we heard time and again, one of those problems. The team feels that the leader does NOT keep them in the loop. The leader senses that the team does NOT “get it.” The curse of knowledge can be lifted but only if both parties move away. Move where? Huh…
The team must move out of victimhood and tell the leader exactly what they need to know to full engage. Easy enough but amazingly rare. The leader must move away from assuming people don’t get it, and, instead, create disciplined time to “bring everybody up to speed.” Sounds simple, but why is it that saying people are our most important asset, is rarely said by those “down the line?” Beuhler, Beuhler, anyone, anyone…
These “movements” will eliminate the curse, the half-hearted effort, and produce alignment. Leaders and teams that are “in synch” experience energy, power and NOT the curse. These rare teams are on their way to performance gains. Very cool.
What knowledge does your team need?
How do you know?
Are you slowing down to allow this “synchage” to occur?
Are you rooting yourself out of victimhood and telling the boss how to best involve you?
Are you rinsing and repeating until the team gets it, or telling them once and assuming it’s done?
BTW, did you catch my humor or was I assuming too much?
Tell me more…
BUILT TO LEAD 
Hey Chet, speaking from experience, I’d like to “AND” your great post and say watch out, too, for the “curse or competence”– a cousin of the curse of knowing. A lot of people, including me, assume that they can coast on the competence they brought to the workplace from school, or their early experience, or a couple of years ago. Staying in their “comfort zone” and avoiding any discomfort or awkwardness from their “challenge zone” is easy, maybe even understandable, but basically a form of slow death.
My advice? Examine carefully such ass-umptions. Most fields these days are experiencing an explosion of new information and methods. Hard-won competence, gained a while ago, may be irrelevant before you know it. The recipe for continuous learning is: A big dose of humility, with an added dash of curiosity and a pinch of discipline, a cup of courage, along with a heaping tablespoon of commitment to learn. It helps to READ. And to WRITE. And to PRACTICE. Study, learn, apply–right?