I've been lucky to spend some time with Optimal Workshop recently. One of the coolest things about their office is the large library in the main meeting room.
An entire wall of shelves is filled with books, packed with the latest and greatest thinking on business, change, design, leadership, and personal development.
With all those books on hand, is there any point in getting together for learning and development? Surely there's expert commentary on the shelf that's more accurate and informed than I can come up with?
Sure... but that's not how change works.
While books remain, in my opinion, the most incredible and low-cost way to learn anything new, their usefulness (in isolation) is limited.
We have access to an infinite supply of learning and information at low or no cost. Whether searching online, watching webinars, surfing YouTube or reading books, we can't discover little for ourselves. Yet the market for training, coaching and facilitation continues to grow.
The more information available, the greater our need for shared experience. The more people read my books, the more students the more people sign up for our training - even though they already know what we're going to teach.
Information might give us knowledge, but knowledge doesn't lead to execution. The value that any leader, coach, trainer or facilitator brings to any environment is not what they know. It's their ability to deliver a meaning-making experience that makes information useful.
TLDR: it's not what you know. It's how you connect people to it. Focus less on what and more on how.
How are you making your expertise meaningful to others?
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Alicia McKay