Appreciating unknowns

Talk to a 5-year old for twenty seconds and you will quickly be unequivocally told that they 'know everything'.

This confident belief in their knowledge base is completely age-appropriate.

At this young age, they've figured out a few things in life and have subsequently concluded that they are in possession of all there is to know.

BTW it is not uncommon to find adults, often in positions of great power, who act the same way.

With maturity there is however a slow emergence of the realisation that the true scope of what we actually know, is alarmingly limited.

We call this 'appreciation of unknowns', wisdom.

Wisdom is accompanied by a humble acknowledgement that in the practice of problem analysis, there is far more that is unknown about the wider problem-set, than what we can possibly ever have an understanding of.

And that it's from within these infinite layers of the unknown, that the perceived issue that we face, is born.

The data and information that we can feasibly gather regarding a problem, is only a tiny fraction of what's really going on. Good strategists know this and design and implement interventions from a position of knowing that all of the facts cannot be known.

Bounded rationality becomes an issue when it is not recognised and interventions are made in the false belief that a comprehensive diagnosis has been made.

But if we can appreciate our limitations; embrace the unknowns - we are far better equipped with the appropriate frame of mind to intervene with greater care and effectiveness.

Be wary of strategists that are over confident in their analysis of the problem, their simple solutions in response often create even more of what's not wanted.