Knowledge is the Enemy of Learning

Last week I met a legend in the business world, Larry Wilson.

I had first heard of Larry in the 80's when I began my

career. By that time he had founded one of the largest training companies in the

USA and was a nationally known speaker and author. Oh yeah, and he

revolutionized the selling profession by teaching sales people how to focus on

what the customer wants rather than manipulating them into buying what they had

to sell.

So, meeting Larry was a high-point last week, to say the

least.

One of the things Larry said that I remembered was

this:

"Knowledge is the enemy of learning."

He must have seen the funny look on my face, so he

explained. His message was that we often choose to ignore learning opportunities

because we think we know all we need to know. Our current knowledge prevents us

from exploring and discovering further.

This reminds me of a similar idea. Our present situation

is often what prevents us from getting to where we want to go. We get too

comfortable or too averse to risk to make a change. We fall into a "things

are okay so let's not rock the boat" mentality.

Another way to look at this is we get into habits. Our

habits help us keep a stability and continuity in our lives. But they can also

prevent us from experiencing more of what our world has to offer.

As Ross

Robertson says so well in his essay

Shoshin Ni Kaeru:

"As soon as we think we are doing it right, we stop

paying attention. We kill the experience. Our understanding ossifies and becomes

inert, until some later event forces another brutal awakening."

In our lives and our businesses, we often stop paying

attention. We stop because of habits, because of routine. So many parts of our

lives get put on auto-pilot. When this happens, we stop experiencing, we stop

understanding, we stop feeling and we stop improving.

To a certain degree, we stop living.

If we want to grow sustainable, successful organizations,

we can't stop living in any part of our lives. We can't let the habits and

routines of our lives get in the way of learning and experiencing. We need to

continue acquiring raw information based on living and doing, not on what we

already "know".

One way to describe what Larry talked about is, we need

to "learn to get out of our own way". We are often our own biggest

obstacles to learning, doing and changing.

So, as you look for ways to grow and improve your

business, take an honest look at what you're doing right now. Are you an

obstacle to change? Are you letting what you "know" stop you from learning

anything new? Are you letting where you are (or what you are) become an obstacle

to where you want to go or what you want to be?

Inaction is the enemy of change just as knowledge is the

enemy of learning. To grow and improve we need to overcome both enemies every

day.