How to get smarter about the things you know

How smart are you about the things you know explores different levels of expertise -- from being aware of a topic to understanding the topic intimately.  This, the second part of the essay, focuses on strategies you and your organization can take to increase your expertise.

(If you didn't already, please read the first part of this essay.  Otherwise, much of what follows won't be as strong.)

Cost-effective ways to better knowledge:

• Webinars, videos, short seminars, traditional conference sessions (that is, a moderated panel of speakers), newspaper or magazine articles, blogs, community discussion boards.  
• In-house strategies: Invite speakers to share their knowledge with your group, or invite staff to conduct presentations on their own areas of expertise.

Cost-effective ways to better comprehension:

• Workshops of a half-day to a day, longer seminars that focus on single set of topics, books, self-paced courses and video tutorials.  
• In-house strategies: Create or maintain a library in your office, reward staff for becoming "resident experts" on various topics.  

Cost-effective ways to better application:

• Training programs that indicate what skills are to be learned and provide opportunities for participants to learn from someone who can evaluate their work.  (Because some people apply the word 'training' to any kind of learning, it is important to know what skills will be taught and how.  Also, opportunities for staff to practice their skills under real or realistic conditions.  (Any skill can be forgotten if it's not practiced.)
• In-house strategies: Provide staff time to train their colleagues.  Reward efforts made by staff to seek in-house training.

Cost-effective ways to better analysis:

• Deep learning courses, such as college or graduate courses (or BOCEP Deep Learning courses), or executive learning programs; speaking at conferences or leading workshops; organizational or group retreats focused on problem-solving.
• In-house strategies: Reserve time at staff meetings for collaborative problem-solving and peer coaching on difficult client matters.

Cost-effective ways to better synthesis:

• Studio courses, volunteer projects, or any other kind of learning experiences that challenge participants to create -- not just find -- solutions to problems.
• In-house strategies:  Synthesis is what happens when participants "learn while doing."  For this to be a good learning experience, directors and managers must be open to allowing participants to make mistakes.  If that doesn't happen, participants will simply apply what they already know, but are unlikely to integrate new information. 

Cost-effective ways to better evaluation:

• Sabbaticals, extended programs such as degree or certificate programs, extended retreats.
• In-house strategies:  The best way to get to this highest level of expertise is to create an environment that encourages a large amount of reflection.  Unfortunately, this is almost impossible in organizations that focus on getting the most productivity from staff at the lowest cost.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Director, Professional Development Institute 

How smart are you about the things you know?

There’s a big gap between knowing a little bit about a subject and being such an expert on it that you can evaluate it and create new solutions. 

Overestimating how much you know can be embarrassing (you can sound foolish next to an expert), expensive (if you take on an assignment that you’re not qualified for), and – if you’re a AICP urban planner, unethical. (See B12 of the AICP ethics code.) 

Underestimating how much you know can be costly (you may miss out on opportunities because of your lack of confidence) or cause you to waste your time trying to re-learn what you already know.  (How many times do you need to really need to go over the fundamentals of smart growth?)

If you’re an executive or director, not knowing what it is your employees know, or don’t, can cause significant risks and costs to your organization.

How do you know what it is you don’t know?  Here are some tips.

First, some learning theory. (Don’t worry, it will be short.)  According to Bloom’s Taxonomy ofEducational Objectives, there are six levels of knowing:

• Knowledge – the ability to recognize a subject and its parts.  If the subject is urban design, someone with knowledge is aware that urban design has an impact on the quality of places and that it involves streets, public spaces, trees, etc.
  
• Comprehension – knowing the concepts and details of a subject well enough to explain it to someone else.
  
• Application – the ability to apply your comprehension to a problem.  Example: Deciding what type of tree to put on a truck corridor.
  
• Analysis – the ability to examine or deconstruct a subject to make inferences or generalizations.  In other words, knowing not just what works, but why. 
  
• Synthesis – the ability to combine information in different ways to solve problems.  If you apply a particular solution to a problem simply because you have seen it done somewhere else, you are Applying.  To come up with new or innovative solutions, you need to Synthesize different types of information and adapt it to the problem.
  
•  Evaluation – the ability to make critical judgments based on your analysis of the subject and your awareness of other information relevant to the subject.  Jane Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities was an evaluation of the way planners thought about placemaking.  She analyzed activity in spaces that were affected by urban design programs, as well as activity in unprogrammed areas,  the mindsets of placemakers she had interviewed or observed, and synthesized various pieces of information to challenge us with a new way of looking at how we do our job.  Anybody can have opinions; it takes a lot of thinking to evaluate.

Education and organizational development theorists have produced a lot of useful information about how to apply Bloom’s Taxonomy.  There are a number of good free resources available on the Internet.  To save you time, here are a few questions you can ask to get a good sense of how much you know about a subject. 

If you can confidently say yes to these questions, you probably have achieved the learning level.        

•  Knowledge: Have you heard of it? Can you identify and recall the components of the subject? If the subject is an activity, can you identify and recall the sequence of steps used to achieve the objective?  Have you been able to discuss a subject without someone who is equally or more knowledgeable making valid criticisms of your assumptions?
  
• Comprehension:  If you were presented as an expert on a subject and asked, under threat of embarrassment, to explain a subject, could you do it?  Can you illustrate the concept, through drawing or metaphor?  Would you feel comfortable generalizing, based on what you believe you know?  Have you done this successfully?
  
• Application: Do you know what tools or inputs are used to solve a typical problem associated with the subject?  Have you applied your knowledge successfully?
  
• Analysis: Could you write a report that draws general conclusions about the subject, based on your examination of the evidence.  In other words, could you write a report that could be used by someone else to address another problem in that subject?  Can you explain why strategies that have worked with another problem have not, or would not, work with the problem at hand? Have you done this successfully?
  
• Synthesis:  Can you adapt tools and strategies to create new solutions to distinct problems?  Have you connected knowledge you gained from outside a subject area to successfully address a problem in that subject?
  
• Evaluation:  If you were given a choice among several solutions to a problem, could you rank them in terms of effectiveness?  Could you anticipate the negative consequences of each solution? Can you explain your evaluation so that someone with only a little knowledge of the subject can understand?

In the next essay on this subject, you will be able to identify the learning solutions that best meet your needs. 

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Leonardo Vazquez is the Director of the Professional Development Institute and The Leading Institute, which provide training, coaching and other services to help build leaders for planning and public affairs in the 21st century.  

To learn more, please visit the Professional Development Institute.