Number 32 – I Don’t Know Yet

Grow personal OpEx learning and actively seek out knowledge, skill, coaches and mentors.

Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic

New experiences are available all the time.  One of the biggest problems we face, however, is not knowing what we don’t know.  If we were more aware of those ‘things we don’t know’ it would be much easier to chase what we need to learn.  Coaches and mentors can help us to see what we don’t, and new materials and practices offer us the opportunity to expand our knowledge and experience ideas that we may fall short of truly understanding.  There is nothing wrong with an ‘I don’t know yet’ mindset.

No one is immune to this disease.  If one is not living a life of learning, one is missing a huge opportunity to get better.  The general body of knowledge is endless, and the exposure to it can only spur new ways of seeing the same thing.  There is an opportunity in every book or article to find something we did not know.  I often tell my coaching clients, once you are aware of an idea, I know you will do with it what you do with everything else you have learned, you will make it your own.  That is one of the most rewarding parts of my work.  Seeing great minds in operation is exciting and enlightening.

I have my coaching cycle.  I refer to it as 6A. 

Assessment
Awareness
Apprehension
Application
Action
Achievement

I Don’t Know Yet

In my work with teams at all three levels, I am looking for what is missing, so that I can bring awareness to it.  As the conversation around that idea creates thought, we also begin to see opportunities to put it in play.  The next step then is to do.  If the appropriate thinking has been given, the achievement is almost a formality.  I have seen amazing accomplishments made by both individuals and teams working through these six steps. 

I don’t know yet is an invitation to learning.  Any change at any level in your organization is an experience in learning something.  Learning, however, does not end in one’s mind.  Have you really learned anything if you have never experienced an idea?  Perhaps you have a theory, but until you have an experience to prove a theory, I believe you have not learned anything.  

Questions For Your Consideration

Where are you missing an idea?

Who is assessing your thinking?

Who is offering you new ways of seeing things?

Where do you get new ideas about old topics?

Where do you get the opportunity to experiment and experience your theories?

More OpEx 4 OpEx