On the seventh day of #lean #leadership, I'm going offer you an unusual present.
It's a curse. 👿 🤐
No, it's not a bad word.
It's the Curse of Knowledge.
What is it?
The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when a person who has specialized knowledge assumes that others share in that knowledge.
It happens a lot in schooling. Teachers assume their students share their knowledge, and get frustrated when the students "don't get it".
1/
Y'know another place where it happens a lot?
Strategy.
The #strategy is clear as a bell in the leader's mind. But when the company has done a half-hearted job of communicating and deploying the strategy, and execution just isn't happening, the fingers come out, and it's accountability time.
What's the problem? Should we fall into the arrogance trap? Maybe there was not enough communication, not enough follow-up?
2/
No. That blames the receiver. It assumes the strategy and the leader is flawless.
It's not enough dialogue, not the right questions, not enough #catchball. Strategy is as much about listening as it is about talking. And #strategydeployment, even more so.
Leaders can't just say, "here's the strategy, figure it out". They listen to their team. Their team tells them what they can do, what they can't do, what they need in order to change.
3/
Better yet, the team should give input into the strategy, not just saying, "great idea boss!".
The strategy needs to adjust. The idea that it runs on a static annual cadence, ignorant of the competition and customers is laughable.
How do you overcome the curse of knowledge in strategy? Listen to your employees and customers. Test your strategy and hypothesis with them. Hold yourself to account for accomplishing it. Adjust. Admit your mistakes. Be #humble. Test it again. Repeat.
4/
@kjscotland Backbriefing is a great add. #catchball goes one step further by asking "how".
https://businessmap.io/lean-management/hoshin-kanri/what-is-catchball
David Haigh
Karl Scotland
