In a conversation between Anderson Cooper and David Gergen, I glimpsed an intriguing confrontation between real smarts and the wisdom of experience. In focus was a discussion of Speaker Pelosi's knowledge of waterboarding and Panetta's protective action in behalf of the CIA. As David Gergen commented: "This is a remarkable story. Two Democratic heavyweights at sword's point over what happened seven years ago, not even on Leon Panetta's watch."
Cooper pressed Gergen again and again, emphasizing that the public had the right to know who's telling the truth, that the public should know what the truth is and have a light shined on it, whether Nancy Pelosi can be trusted and whether we have a right to be cynical about Washington politics. As Cooper put it, "It's so fascinating to me, just I mean, someone who is outside of Washington, to see a situation, I mean, it's rare you see a situation where clearly somebody is lying, somebody is not telling the truth, and yet. . . "
What was so intriguing to me was how Gergen parried Cooper's comments with the wisdom of his experience. As usual, Gergen kept his composure, a wide smile on his face. Gergen is too nice a guy, but if I didn't know him I'd say the smile was a smirk, evoking his scorn for the question, certainly smug, and all-knowing. His parries included the thoughtful, "you're basically right, these things happen, it just seems that. . . , but you know, this is Washington politics (and for Mr. Gergen, not a pejorative).
But it was Gergen's last two lines that best clarified the issue: "But I'm just telling you, as in so many things in Washington, it takes a long time to sort out the truth. . . . there are no direct paths to the truth in Washington and on these controversies." There you have it: the wisdom of experience. Nuanced, gray, not black or white. Not pejorative, not even critical, much less negative. Merely informative.
Smarts plus experience may (sometimes) equal wisdom.
David Gergen is one of those rare souls with the experience to back up his insights. Serving as assistant and counselor to four presidents, both Republican and Democrat, when he draws a conclusion I pay attention. So when Anderson Cooper (a really smart guy) confronts the ideas of David Gergen, the intelligent thing to do is defer to Gergen, exactly what Cooper did.
So how do you assess "experience?"
This confrontation provides me an opportunity to rant about some of the crazy ideas surrounding the sacred cow of "experience." Candidly, I think that the claims of experience are often just so much bunk. As thoughtful professionals, it's important not to be so enamored of "experience." When business people, clients or consultants claim experience, I tend to be wary of those claims. They're usually made along with an insistence that so-and-so is has a very solid knowledge base, is a good decision-maker and that that person should be deferred to, or some such folderol.
Although you're not going to ask some of these questions directly, they should sift through your gray matter before you find yourself infatuated with anyone's claims of experience.
- Has the professional learned a lot over the years, and is he/she continuing on a learning trajectory? So, does the person really have 15 years of experience or three or four years of experience over a 15 year period? Studies confirm solidly that most professionals stop learning after they gain competency in their field. That means four to six years into their profession.
- What's the quality of that person's experience? The quality of 3M or Proctor and Gamble experience means a lot more to me than long experience in other major firms, much less the small outfit or family operation.
- How open is that person of experience to new ideas? Research shows clearly that more often than not, experienced people often are close-minded, unaware of changes in their field and tend to ignore situational differences.
If you're looking for support, guidance or mentoring, you need to know the answers to these questions. You'll need to check out your network, engage that person in a number of conversations before you blunder into a useless relationship, and be able to answer all three of my questions.
Good luck on your search.
See my related post, Gen-Y Questioning and Conversational Leadership