Wisdom!
Wisdom is defined most simply as the quality of having experience and good judgment.
And, from my POV working with organizations around the country and the world, in far too many places the key skill that is missing is often the good judgment and wisdom that experience gives you.
In the United States, we have built a country on the backs of this idea that the only idea that is worthwhile is the new one. That having experience is maybe a bad thing. And, that wisdom isn’t necessary.
While I would never purport to suggest that someone is better just because they have more experience, because having the right experience is also a very important thing.
But we do need wisdom now more than ever.
Because many of the challenges we have aren’t challenges of no ideas, or no solutions, or some other no…
Most of the time the challenges we are dealing with are driven mostly by a lack of judgment, greed, or stupidity that comes from never having a base of good knowledge to begin with.
Take for example the current state of our politics in the United States. We have now elected a president that is basically in on the job training, which is always true, but he also lacks the wisdom to admit mistakes, to learn from errors, or to comport himself in a presidential manner.
While many Americans are worried about the actions of someone so obviously overwhelmed and unprepared for the job, he has millions of supporters that have bought in lock, stock, and barrel to his worldview and his beliefs.
This same pattern flipped itself during the presidency of Barack Obama with some people falling all over themselves about everything he said and some people buying into him no matter what he said.
What’s lacking in both cases is that no one seems to be willing or able to take a step back and look at things with the hint of logic and distance that provides wisdom.
If you look at our business environment, you see the same sort of ideas pervading.
We see so many discussions about why productivity is down or why there might be a skills deficit in some industries.
Like these things popped up out of thin air and aren’t the results of years and years of decisions by organizations, governments, and people.
Again, these claims come back to a lack of wisdom on the part of the people that have been charged with leading.
I know that short term-ism is in vogue, but the necessary skill isn’t getting there first…but more likely getting there right.