Summerclass "Show your work" - Jane Bozarth
We have all been there: You come across this deliciously looking dish on a website you recently encountered and you decide to try it for yourself - most likely when you are about to cook for friends and you want to show off your original cooking efforts. You follow the steps, you take into account the appropriate baking time - because, of course, you are a punctual person. You are ready to serve dinner and then… you need to run to the pizzeria around the corner because you messed up big time.
“Anyone who’s diligently followed a written recipe only to have a terrible end result has felt the disconnect between tacit and explicit knowledge.”
Who can show his / her work?
The example of following the recipe is a well picked example, because it clearly indicates that 'showing your work' is not only for the 'knowledge worker'.
"It's fine to know what they know, but what about the rest of the workforce?".
You have probably, at one point, tried to change a lightbulb. I bet you were quite happy when you saw the concierge do it in the hallway at work and on top of that, he might 've even given you some extra tips and tricks on top.
And so: it is not merely about 'information' - that is something you can easily draw from a spreadsheet, a meeting, etc. Only when it is stuffed with 'understanding the exception', the workaround, the correction and so on… you will be able to get the full picture of someone's work and to become skillful at it yourself.
Do you remember this?
1435 + 344 = 1435 + 340 + 4 = 1775 + 4 = 1779
The end result is something you would now draw from your calculator. But the steps in front of it, in green, is something we forgot to do along the way. You were once used to showing your work and you were probably quite good at it too. Your math teacher wanted to see how you came to a specific result because it allowed him/her to provide you proper instructions if it had gone wrong. And now… we don't do it anymore…
Why not share?
Most of us in summerclass were like "Who am I to tell the world what I think." - "Well why not?" Jane replied. We had stipulated other reasons as well of course: because people want to, deliberately, keep know-how to themselves, because the information might be 'secret'… Anyhow - you could think of many other reasons NOT to share, I am sure - but maybe the best reason to DO share, is because you can learn more when you do.
I very much liked the example of the Vanderbilt University study in which young children where shown a series of patterned bugs and where asked to complete the pattern. One group of kids where asked to give the answer immediately. Another group had to (silently) describe the thought process to themselves and a third group had to explain their mothers their reasoning. This last group scored best on the more difficult test at the end:
When you articulate ideas to others, you learn better. Final.
But it is hard, I know! Harold Jarche, you might know him from the "Seek - Sense - Share"-model has written a lot about Personal Knowledge Management, especially the issue with documentation. The more implicit knowledge is (like expertise), the harder it gets to document.
So… - I don't like very lengthy blogs - let me try to come to a close for today. I have been working on this blog 'out loud' (well at least I have shown it to my colleagues and have spoken about it with them quickly on the phone etc.) and one remark of my colleague Marc has been dwelling around for a day now:
What if we all were indeed very good at making explicit what is actually implicit knowledge… How long then will it take before AI and Robots will take over what I do now?!
But, wait… I am again finding new reasons NOT to share… this is no good… I need to read more in Jane's "Show your work" book. Because I must admit, there are a lot of beautiful examples in here that have helped many people perform better than they did before and that is really something worthwhile.
*** I am curious, though, what you think about the AI and robot-thing! ***
I promise I will come back to you soon with some more practical tips from Jane Bozarth to start ‘Show Your Work’. So stay tuned!