HE KNOWING – DOING GAP

THE KNOWING – DOING GAP

In today’s information age with so much knowledge floating around, companies are plagued with an inertia that comes from knowing too much and doing too little - a phenomenon called the knowing-doing gap. Executives of companies know what is to be done, what actions need to be taken when companies are in trouble but mostly nothing gets done. This can be traced to a basic human propensity to let talk substitute for action, particularly 'smart talk.'

This quality is instilled in young management students’ right from their college days where class participation is the order of the day. Class Participation is the mantra that all our 'revered' kings of RG (Relative Grading) cling to. A substantial part of students' grades is usually based on how much they say and how smart they sound in class. Students spend hours thinking of weird, pointless crap that they can throw up in the guise of fountains of logic. The vagueness of the whole concept stems from the fact that it inspires you to indulge in pointless blabber and still earns you marks. Concern for class participation is heightened by the fact that grades (and First-Year Honors! And McKinsey) depended so heavily on in-class commentary.

Grading students on class participation makes pedagogical sense as it encourages them to think carefully about what they are reading. But telling students that they must sound smart in order to succeed has a pernicious effect as well. They learn that they need only to deliver an intelligent insight -or an intelligent critique of someone else's insight-to impress their professors. The basic idea of getting people to share their experiences, gain from it and basically contribute to value-addition is lost.

There is one famous theory related to this knowing doing gap. It’s called the "babble" or "blabbermouth" theory of leadership. The theory states that people who talk more often and longer-regardless of the quality of their comments-are more likely to emerge as leaders of new groups, to be identified as leaders by observers of the group, to be viewed as influential by both group members and outsiders, and have greater influence on group decisions. By dominating the group's "airtime," they let everyone know who's in charge.

Companies are plagued with the same problem. The teams keep making the same decisions again and again, but they never get around to actually implementing them. As the famous maxim goes "A decision by itself changes nothing. You actually have to put it into action."

Very often companies reward smart talk, not smart action. Witty people with exciting ideas get ahead, not those who did the gritty work of implementation.

It so often happens that people get hired, promoted, and assigned to coveted jobs based on their ability to sound intelligent, and not necessarily on their ability to act that way. The message received is: Don't worry about your accomplishments, just make sure you sound good. That message doesn't inspire people to leap into action-it often has the opposite effect. And thus the knowing-doing gap widens.

This article is not intended to bring an end to conversations, meetings, or presentations or that people should stop trying to sound smart. The right kind of talk can inspire and guide intelligent action. It's just that talk can't be allowed to become a substitute for action. Not all organizations are plagued by the knowing-doing gap. Some have managed to avoid the smart-talk trap. Such organizations reveal five characteristics:

• Leaders who know and do the work
• They have a bias for plain language and simple concepts
• They frame questions by asking 'how,' not just 'why
• They have strong mechanisms that close the loop
• They believe that experience is the best teacher

When looked into the success stories of a few professionals who have climbed the corporate ladder, this quality does not take one very far in life. Infact this is more of a smart talk trap. Managers assume saying intelligent and persuasive things has become central to management work, and that there are so many rewards for smart talk. They forget that words aren't of much use if they don't inspire action. Some managers also forget that if their words aren't credible, they will lose their ability to inspire action.

So before falling into such smart talk traps one must learn the basic philosophy of life "Actions speaks louder than words". By closing the knowing-doing gap one discovers the rewards of action.