Dunning Kruger / Too Cool for School

Incorrect Knowledge

How to Manage Ignorance

Have you ever been in a discussion where you knew you were correct, but you also knew the other person also knew that they were right too? I wish I could say this is a rare occurrence, but watching the news for 15 minutes proves many intelligent individuals are convinced they are correct when a large percentage of them are wrong.

Let's call this “Incorrect Knowledge.”

Unfortunately, this is as true in business as it is in politics. There are many conference and board rooms across the globe where well-meaning participants (combatants?) are entrenching themselves, supporting a fundamentally wrong position.

Assuming no mal-intent, this dissociation from the truth certainly contributes to many sub-optimal leadership decisions. The truth is that what we know isn’t the leading cause of poor choices, nor is it what we don’t know that drives the bus over the cliff; it is what individuals and teams think they know, incorrectly, that causes the most egregious mistakes.

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” Charles Darwin

For those of us thrashing and slogging through the complex and ambiguous thorny undergrowth that is leading an…