Time Magazine's March 10, 2008 issue had an article about the Presidential Race and whether experience or expertise drives performance. The article had some interesting findings which are applicable to the business world especially given the number of experts that are out there professing their wisdom on some particular topic. If you're not sure where to find business 'experts', turn on CNBC, attend a conference or look for consultants who maybe sitting in your building now selling you their 'expertise'.
The main findings revealed in the article were as follows:
"Experts tend to be good at their particular talent, but when somthing unpredictable happens - something that changes the rules of the game they usually play - they're little better than the rest of us."
Implication - When an expert is offering up some one-dimensional solution for some intractable organizational problem, see how they'll react to a curveball. One-dimensional solutions don't work for multi-dimensional problems.
"Primary finding is that rather than mere experience or even raw talent, it is dedicated, slogging, generally solitary exertion...that leads to first-rate performance. And it should never get easier; if it does, you are coasting, not improving. Ericcson (author's study) calls this exertion 'deliberate practice,' by which he means the kind of practice we hate, the kind that leads to failure and hair-pulling and fist-pounding."
Implication - If an expert is selling you something they've never practiced, built, etc, their expertise is dubious at best or even on non-existent. Sitting in a room and looking at numbers and coming up with frameworks is easy compared to actually practicing something in reality.
"The number of years of experience in a domain is a poor predictor of attained performance." - Anders Ericsoon, co-editor, The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance
Implication - If someone has been trying to solve the same problem for many many years, that doesn't mean they're experts. It can often mean they're clueless or selling snakeoil. Don't mistake years for wisdom or expertise. (Note: The clueless comment doesn't apply to scientific research generally, but I'd say is often applicable to the business consultants out there who continue to pitch the same solution, dressed differently, for many years with no real improvement in client performance.)
Remember to test the experts. See that they've practiced what they preach, their solutions work even if a curveball is introduced and don't think that someone who has been coming up with 'solutions' to the same problem for many years is an expert. You're interested in progress they've made - not their activity.
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