Remembering what it is like to not know

One problem about becoming proficient is that you lose knowledge of what it is like to not know. This knowledge is critical to include when instructing or informing others, because you may overlook the very things they need to be told. It is critical when introducing innovation into organisations, because addressing concerns are critical...but which ones?

Take, for instance, the telephone. If you were to teach someone to use one - what would you include? This link to Chris Wild's excellent Retronaut blog shows you some of the things you could include. Did you include "Find The Number First" or "Concentrate While Telephoning"? Probably not.

If some of the suggestions - specifically "Starting a Telephone Talk" - seemed quaint, consider this: "When the telephone appeared in the 1870s, people worried about receiving calls from people to whom they had not been properly introduced. And what should one say when picking up the receiver? Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, suggested “Ahoy, ahoy”. But as in many other respects, his ideas lost out to those of Thomas Edison, who preferred “Hello”, an expression that was rarely used before the telephone but is now ubiquitous."

"In 1903 the trade journal Telephony reported an elderly woman's complaints about her niece, who received a phone call from a male friend while dressing. “The two of them stood talking to one another just as if they were entirely dressed and had stopped for a little chat on the street! I tell you this generation is too much for me,” she grumbled."*

When informing or innovating, close collaboration with the ignorant may be your best resource.

* Source: The Economist Print Edition 13th December 2007.