I recently moderated a panel where the discussion turned to how AI changes what companies need. One of the panelists observed:
We are moving from a knowledge-based skillset to a wisdom-based skillset. To gain wisdom requires gaining experience.
The implication is that those who are ambitious and want to grow in an organization should differentiate themselves through understanding the company’s value proposition, its strategy, its customers needs experientially, interacting with these through conversations and actions.
Through the hands-on experience, they will gain the ability to discern and to exercise judgment.
Wisdom comes from experience, but experience often comes from making mistakes and learning from them. This creates a paradox for organizations that want wise employees but are risk-averse.
But the challenge to this is captured well in this ancient quote from Agamemnon by the Greek playwright Aeschylus:
Tis Zeus alone who shows the perfect way
Of knowledge: He hath ruled,
Men shall learn wisdom, by affliction schooled.
In visions of the night, like dropping rain,
Descend the many memories of pain
Before the spirit’s sight: through tears and dole
Comes wisdom o’er the unwilling soul—
A boon, I wot, of all Divinity,
That holds its sacred throne in strength, above the sky!
Wisdom comes to us through suffering. Few have the courage or resilience to endure enough of it to become wise.
Organizations that prioritize risk minimization may inadvertently limit opportunities for their employees to gain wisdom through meaningful challenges and learning experiences.
And where does the suffering come from? I’d argue that mistakes are the primary source.
But there is a way to encourage the young to embrace the suffering, and perhaps increase the number of people willing to endure it. In fact, there is an ethical case for accepting suffering, as Viktor Frankl lays out in Man’s Search for Meaning, reflecting on life in a concentration camp, and the mental qualities that allowed some to survive while many perished:
The way in which [someone] takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even under the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to his life. He may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.
That may persuade individuals, but not organizations, which exist to exploit profit primarily by minimizing risk, which means the inexperienced (unwise) won’t have substantial opportunities to gain wisdom the fastest.
For that, the organization has an interest to keep people longer than the 2 year average and give the less experienced opportunities to learn and grow alongside those who have already accumulated wisdom.
I'm an independent consultant and business advisor.
For over 20 years, I've been building products and teams at companies ranging from startups to publicly traded enterprises.
I write articles on themes of strategy, leadership, and navigating an ever-changing environment in the pursuit of transforming a vision into powerful execution.
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