Wisdom

What is wisdom? While the definition my be elusive, we usually know it when we see it. Don’t we. Typically, my “older” friends come across as wise. But why? As I thought about it? Experience may be the primary ingredient in wisdom. Seeing things in the context of where one has been, seen … experienced. Then there’s knowledge. The books one has read. The people he has met, learned from. Emotion. The  lubrication that blends experience and knowledge. Gives wisdom the texture, is the sensitivity necessary to amplify it. Really strike us when we hear it. When it comes our way.

What flashes into my mind? An exchange I had with my nephew who a number of years ago was appointed Managing Editor of the Washington Post. He had never managed a soul. Instantly he had a hundred people reporting to him. In a mild panic he called me knowing I was a team builder, a human dynamics guy. “Uncle Bob, What a should I do?” Instantly the experiences over decades building businesses flashed through my mind. Knowledge … a phrase really came to mind.

Then I pictured this great young man at his desk, challenged … perplexed. A bit bewildered. Emotionally I empathized. Simply said to him, “Culture trumps strategy … every time.” “Wow!” he exclaimed. “Thanks! Really helpful.” Wisdom maybe? But the thought process I remember? The visualization of where he was at that moment. This evoked in me the stuff he needed. Without me picturing at him at his desk, I don’t think I could have summoned that short phase that fit his situation so well.
“Culture trumps strategy… every time.” Experience … knowledge … emotion. Wisdom?Hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Feel it. Don’t you?