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Wisdom
- An Economic Imperative
The
more information and knowledge we generate, the more wisdom we
need to make sense of it all argues Mike Bell
If the mention of wisdom inspires images of old people with
grey hair, then think again. The rise in information and communication
technologies is creating so much new information and knowledge
that many executives are getting overwhelmed. If we want to outdo
the competition we need to make wise use of all this knowledge.
We must steadily move up the value chain from information, to
knowledge and then to wisdom.
 Joseph
Meeker1 defines wisdom as "a state of the human mind
characterized by profound understanding and deep insight. It
is often, but not necessarily, accompanied by extensive formal
knowledge. Unschooled people can acquire wisdom, and wise people
can be found among carpenters, fishermen, or housewives. Wherever
it exists, wisdom shows itself as a perception of the relativity
and relationships among things.
"It is an awareness of wholeness that
does not lose sight of particularity or concreteness, or of
the intricacies of interrelationships.
Wisdom cannot be confined to a specialized field, nor is it an
academic discipline; it is the consciousness of wholeness and
integrity that transcends both. Wisdom is complexity understood
and relationships accepted."
It seems this lack of deep insight; the
ability to hold an "awareness
of wholeness that does not lose sight of particularity or concreteness,
or of the intricacies of interrelationships" may be endemic in
our culture today. I believe this is what John Humprhreys2 was
referring to in a recent Sunday Times article when he said: "The
problem with experts is that they have learned too much. This
means an increasing amount of specialisation and compartmentalisation,
and that creates problems. They may not only fail to see the
wood for the trees. Sometimes they cannot even see the trees
because their eyes are so closely focused on the molecular structure
of the bark."
The challenge for us in many parts of our lives it how to balance
this fine detail perspective with the big picture and keep both
in sight. This challenge is becoming increasingly important because
there is more and more that we need to pay attention to.
In the world of business in particular, it is becoming increasingly
difficult for an organisation to
read, disseminate and come to a shared understanding and agreement
of the action needed in response to all the knowledge available
on a particular issue.
As Roger Bennett and Helen Gabriel say in
the Journal of Knowledge Management3,
"Knowledge
is perishable but, properly harnessed, can result in wisdom
that
may be directed towards a plethora of operational tasks."
But
it is clearly not just at the level of day-to-day tasks that
wisdom can be of value. In the Harvard Business Review4,
Peter Senge, best selling author of business transformation book 'The
Fifth Discipline' says: ". we confront two critical challenges: how to address deep problems for which hierarchical leadership
alone is insufficient and how to harness the intelligence and
spirit of people at all levels of the organisation. Our
responses may lead us, ironically, to a future based on more
ancient - and more natural - ways of organizing.
"In
a sense, such a change involves returning to an older model
of community:
traditional societies that gave equal weight to elders for
their wisdom, teachers for their ability to help people grow
and warriors, weavers and growers for their life skills."
It is the return to
more ancient ways that a company called The Wisdom Meme believes
can offer some powerful
and pragmatic tools to help organizations evoke more of their
wisdom. Mike Bell, cofounder and director, says: "For millennia,
our ancestors, when faced with challenges and complex issues,
would sit in circle, in round houses, long houses, around the
fire or the round table, to bring forward their wisdom. Many
peoples still do. These wisdom ways still exist but we have marginalized
them. We have given priority to our logical, scientific thinking
and denied the value of the wholeness that our spirit, body and
emotions can also bring to any situation."
The Wisdom Meme teaches an old way to evoke
wisdom called a Wisdom Council that looks into the issues and
decisions facing us from eight distinct perspectives that make
up a whole. In the Council process, we learn to see quickly and
deeply into: what is needed; what is missing; what we need to
remember to act powerfully and what are the likely outcomes of
a given plan. It teaches us to think and act systemically.
The Wisdom Council is a process whose simplicity
and wholeness are easy to grasp, and yet it is worthy of a lifetime
of study. It is
capable of holding the enormous complexity of the whole without
getting lost in the details. The design of the Council remains
visible, accessible and guides us to a place of clarity - a clarity
that is in harmony with our highest aspirations.
Alan Kay, an "imagineer" at Disney, is reported
to have said, "Perspective is worth 80 IQ points." The Wisdom
Council uses eight perspectives, which make up a design for wisdom
that has pragmatic application in our lives and organisations.
Imagine how much more powerful, whole and
balanced the decision-making in your organisation could be if
attention was given to all of the following:
· Freedom,
creativity and innovative
· Appreciation
of the current situation
· Analysis
of the power and danger implications
· Alignment
with purpose and direction of the organisation
· Maintaining
and balancing key systems
· Predicting
the future outcomes
· Developing
simple strategies for clear action
· Testing
the integrity and enthusiasm for the decision
These are just some
of the elements that can help harness the wisdom from the vast
knowledge and experience
that is available to us They help us see the patterns and give
meaning to the rapidly increasing quantities of knowledge that
threatens to overwhelm us
"As important as the eight perspective", says
Mike Bell, "is a ground of trust, respect and deep listening." In
their work with organisations, The Wisdom Meme puts significant
energy into creating this ground so that dueling egos, turf wars
and talking-without-listening, is kept to a minimum.
One company to benefit from a Wisdom Council
is Knight Ridder International, the second largest newspaper
publisher in the US. They
brought 35 of their senior executives to Silicon Valley to see
what they could learn from the dot.coms companies.
They appreciated the contrast of the ancient
and modern as well as the opportunity to work outside in beautiful
parkland. B Henderson Wingfield thought the Wisdom Council was
a "powerful process to evoke
thoughtful input from a group - with focus on sincerity."
Another
executive commented: "I needed
to re-verify what is the soul of Knight- Ridder. If what I
heard today reflects that, we are
on track."
The Institute for the Future, a 30 year
old company that develops 'foresight' reports
for international corporations, employed the Wisdom Council several
times as part of their strategic planning process. The challenge
was to create an environment in which the directors, all academics,
would share recommendations for the way forward in a way that
built on and supported each other.
Bob Johansen, President, thought the experience
was the best directors offsite meeting they had ever held. He
said; "I am impressed with the Wisdom Council process. It is simple yet
profound. It kept us out of our sometimes-dysfunctional communication
styles with each other. We worked the issues, we listened to
each other, we had more equal participation across the whole
group than we typically do with other meeting styles."
Closer
to home, the Scottish branch of the Association for Management
Education and Development (AMED) were one of the first organisations
in the UK to benefit from the Wisdom Council. Their leadership
team had been struggling with a membership challenge that they
had not been able to come to agreement on.
Chairman
at the time, Eddie Palmer reported afterwards: "The
atmosphere was one of calm and tranquility, and everyone commented
on how a complex problem had inroads made with no talking down,
no interruption, and true use of the talents in the room."
References
1.
Joseph Meeker, Landscape, Vol. 25, No. 1, Jan 1981
2.
John Humphreys, Sunday Times, 1st April 2001
3.
Roger Bennett and Helen Gabriel, Journal of Knowledge Management,
Volume 3, Number 3, 1999, 212-225
4. Peter
M. Senge, HBR Sept-Oct 1997
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©
The Wisdom Meme 2007
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