The Wisdom of Being Here Before

“We miss an opportunity for future
success when we fail to learn from
past experience.”


Within business circles we don’t talk about wisdom as much as we should in the context of building and maintaining successful organizations. Complex thought processes, decision-making and interpersonal relationships are recurring cycles at the heart of every business venture, and wisdom is an asset that leaders can use to accelerate informed decision-making and cohesion around personnel, operational and strategic issues.

As a leader who is always looking for insight to help me be more effective in my work, I have encountered a very powerful tool that we all have equal access to – I call it “The Wisdom of Being Here Before”. I define wisdom as ‘the intersection of our intuitive understanding of people and things and the ability to aptly apply that understanding to real experience’. “The Wisdom of Being Here Before” (WBHB) is a special understanding that can be uniquely applied to business situations that recur repeatedly.

There are a lot of things that leaders know; in fact, there are billions of pieces of information and bits of data that are available at the touch of a mouse. However, wisdom is different than information and in my experience it comes from the teachable moments of the natural business life-cycle. The cycle of business inevitably brings us back to similar, sometimes identical, situations that we have encountered in the past. For example, an economic downturn decreases the attractiveness of R&D expenditures. The loss of these endeavors can significantly hinder the development of new, revenue-generating products and services that can help solve the current economic problem. The considerations and ultimate decision around how to proceed with R&D projects is a cyclical business cycle that comes and goes as the external economic environment ebbs and flows.

As another example, one of the most important, and often frustrating, components of business is recruiting, selecting and managing a successful workforce. Yet the pitfalls inherent in the HR experience can create a repetitive cycle of turnover that hinders morale, drains earning potential and bogs down organizational success

Unfortunately many people interpret these recurring cycles as failures (i.e. I thought we solved that problem last year!). This negative interpretation can be a source of frustration and hopelessness because it emphasizes the external cycle of business that is out of our control. Another much more productive interpretation of the recurring cycle is that we recognize the opportunity to approach a familiar problem or challenge with the strength of our prior experience that makes us stronger and more focused on what matters most.

For many leaders, in our rush to accomplish things we actually lose efficiency by not fully integrating the WBHB. This highlights the importance of maintaining the mindset of a learner. Leaders who understand the importance of keeping an open, developmental attitude are able to ask questions in real time such as: What is this circumstance teaching us? How can that be applied to future situations? When that future situation arises, these leaders are able to draw upon their intuitive understanding of people and things and then apply that understanding to their real, present experience, thus avoiding the negative interpretation.

As an emerging leader, I did not understand the WBHB. When a cycle of business would return me to familiar ground, I was often frustrated; more interested in blaming myself for the need to “repeat” something that should have already been completed. As an established leader, I now see the WBHB as an invaluable asset to draw upon when confronted with a tough, but familiar decision. I see it as both a reminder that things always remain in flux and ultimately, start again – and at the same time I can bring my experience, deep insight, confidence and wisdom to each new beginning.

The next time you find yourself re-doing a marketing campaign or getting bogged down with all-too-familiar HR issues, imagine what is possible if you fully integrate the WBHB.