First a quote; “There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience, and that is not learning from experience.” – Archibald MacLeish
I often hear people describe the amount of experience they have in terms of their tenure, or length of service in a given business, industry or profession. Experience is often measured in increments of time such as weeks, months or years. I myself often claim to have 40-plus years of experience working with leaders and teams in exploration of excellence, growth and success.
Is it possible most of us, or at least many of us, are guilty of exaggerating the amount of experience we have, myself included?
Ponder these questions using my 40 years in leadership development as an example:
Do I indeed have 40 years of experience? Or is it possible I have something different… perhaps: One year of experience 40 times over; or four years of experience ten times over; or 20 years twice…? You get the idea.
The Webster’s Dictionary offers several definitions of experience including: 1a, direct observation of, or participation in, events as a basis of knowledge; 1b, the fact, or state, of having been affected by, or gained knowledge through, direct observation or participation in an activity.
I’m suggesting that simply doing a task, job, or function over and over doesn’t yield experience of value if little is learned, or gained, in the process.
True enough, we may gain skill mastery through repetition, but not necessarily growth or new knowledge. Without learning and growth, experience in terms of repetition of past experiences may be of little value, to you or others. This is especially true if the world has changed around us, and that is most certainly the case… guaranteed!
Let’s take leading staff meetings as one small example. If you are responsible for running a weekly or monthly staff meeting, ask yourself; when was the last time you changed the way you run your meetings in terms of agenda, flow, participation, process, or procedures?
If you haven’t changed the way you run your meetings in months or even years, you could be giving yourself credit for more experience than you have, at least in terms of running staff meetings.
Now, if you have researched and reflected, gotten feedback from meeting participants, analyzed your results over time, and have concluded the way you run meetings is the best way to run them, then fine, I’m certainly good with that.
My experience, however, is that many people run meetings the way they have always run meetings. Why? Because they run their meetings the way they have always run meetings… if that makes sense to you. If you always do, what you always did, you will always get, what you always got.
Please know today’s missive is not about meetings. Meetings here were just an example of a multitude of possible experiences. If we are not learning and growing from our experiences, then maybe the amount of experience we have doesn’t matter as much as we thought.
What have you learned recently from your repetitive experiences? Think quick… what did you learn last week that you will apply this week?
Sincerely,
Bryan Yager
“Expanding Your Capacity for Success”
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Bonus Quotes:
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“Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.” – Terry Pratchett
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“Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?” – Voltaire
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“There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.” – John Stuart Mill
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“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” – Vince Lombardi
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“Experience. Something you cannot learn from others but only by yourself .” – Anonymous
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“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
