Do You Know What You Don’t Know
Content
INNOVATION
Do You Know What You Don’t
Know?
by Art Markman
MAY 03, 2012
You probably don’t know as much as you think you do. When put to the test, most people
find they can’t explain the workings of everyday things they think they understand.
Don’t believe me? Find an object you use daily (a zipper, a toilet, a stereo speaker) and try to
describe the particulars of how it works. You’re likely to discover unexpected gaps in your
knowledge. In psychology, we call this cognitive barrier the illusion of explanatory depth. It
means you think you fully understand something that you actually don’t.
We see this every day in buzz words. Though we often use these words, their meanings are
usually unclear. They mask gaps in our knowledge, serving as placeholders that gloss
concepts we don’t fully understand.
For example, several years ago, I attended a corporate meeting where the vice president
spoke about streamlining business practices in the coming year. During the talk, executives
around the room nodded in agreement. Afterward, though, many of them discussed what
streamlining actually meant. None of the people who had nodded in agreement could exactly
define the mechanics of how to streamline a business practice.
At the other end of the spectrum, an upsetting instance of knowledge gaps in the last decade
was the profound misunderstanding of complex financial products that contributed to the
market collapse of 2007. Investment banks were unable to protect themselves from exposure
to these products, because only a few people (either buyers or sellers) understood exactly
what was being sold. Those individuals who did comprehend these product structures
ultimately made huge bets against the market using credit-default swaps. The willingness of
companies like AIG to sell large quantities of credit-default swaps reflected a gap in their
knowledge about the riskiness of products they were insuring.
No matter the scale, discovering your explanatory gaps is essential for aspiring innovators.
An undiagnosed gap in knowledge means you might not fully understand a problem. That can
hinder innovative solutions.
To discover the things you can’t explain, take a lesson from teachers. When you instruct
someone else, you have to fill the gaps in your own knowledge. But you don’t need to wait for
the opportunity to teach someone else:
Explain concepts to yourself as you learn them. Get in the habit of self-teaching. Your
explanations will reveal your own knowledge gaps and identify words and concepts whose
meanings aren’t clear.
Engage others in collaborative learning. Help identify the knowledge gaps of the people
around you. Ask them to explain difficult concepts, even if you think everyone understands
them. Not only will this help you to work through new ideas, it will occasionally uncover
places where your colleagues don’t understand critical aspects of an explanation.
When you do uncover these gaps, treat them as learning opportunities, not signs of weakness.
After all, successful innovation rests on the assumption that you and the people around you
have a high-quality understanding of the problem. Sometimes, uncovering the flaw in that
assumption will help you find a solution.
MORE ON KNOCKING DOWN BARRIERS TO INNOVATION
Turn Your Company into a Customer Platform
Managers Don’t Really Want to Innovate
Innovators, Are You Applying the Wrong Lessons from
Manufacturing?
Don’t Cripple Innovation for the Sake of This Quarter’s Numbers
Art Markman, PhD, is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing at the
University of Texas at Austin and founding director of the program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations. He
has written over 150 scholarly papers on topics including reasoning, decision making, and motivation. He is the
author of several books including Smart Thinking, Smart Change, and Habits of Leadership.
This article is about INNOVATION
FOLLOW THIS TOPIC
Related Topics: MANAGING YOURSELF
Comments
Leave a Comment
POST
0 COMMENTS
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
POSTING GUIDELINES
We hope the conversations that take place on HBR.org will be energetic, constructive, and thought-provoking. To comment, readers must sign
in or register. And to ensure the quality of the discussion, our moderating team will review all comments and may edit them for clarity, length,
and relevance. Comments that are overly promotional, mean-spirited, or off-topic may be deleted per the moderators' judgment. All postings
become the property of Harvard Business Publishing.
Do You Know What You Don’t
Know?
by Art Markman
MAY 03, 2012
You probably don’t know as much as you think you do. When put to the test, most people
find they can’t explain the workings of everyday things they think they understand.
Don’t believe me? Find an object you use daily (a zipper, a toilet, a stereo speaker) and try to
describe the particulars of how it works. You’re likely to discover unexpected gaps in your
knowledge. In psychology, we call this cognitive barrier the illusion of explanatory depth. It
means you think you fully understand something that you actually don’t.
We see this every day in buzz words. Though we often use these words, their meanings are
usually unclear. They mask gaps in our knowledge, serving as placeholders that gloss
concepts we don’t fully understand.
For example, several years ago, I attended a corporate meeting where the vice president
spoke about streamlining business practices in the coming year. During the talk, executives
around the room nodded in agreement. Afterward, though, many of them discussed what
streamlining actually meant. None of the people who had nodded in agreement could exactly
define the mechanics of how to streamline a business practice.
At the other end of the spectrum, an upsetting instance of knowledge gaps in the last decade
was the profound misunderstanding of complex financial products that contributed to the
market collapse of 2007. Investment banks were unable to protect themselves from exposure
to these products, because only a few people (either buyers or sellers) understood exactly
what was being sold. Those individuals who did comprehend these product structures
ultimately made huge bets against the market using credit-default swaps. The willingness of
companies like AIG to sell large quantities of credit-default swaps reflected a gap in their
knowledge about the riskiness of products they were insuring.
No matter the scale, discovering your explanatory gaps is essential for aspiring innovators.
An undiagnosed gap in knowledge means you might not fully understand a problem. That can
hinder innovative solutions.
To discover the things you can’t explain, take a lesson from teachers. When you instruct
someone else, you have to fill the gaps in your own knowledge. But you don’t need to wait for
the opportunity to teach someone else:
Explain concepts to yourself as you learn them. Get in the habit of self-teaching. Your
explanations will reveal your own knowledge gaps and identify words and concepts whose
meanings aren’t clear.
Engage others in collaborative learning. Help identify the knowledge gaps of the people
around you. Ask them to explain difficult concepts, even if you think everyone understands
them. Not only will this help you to work through new ideas, it will occasionally uncover
places where your colleagues don’t understand critical aspects of an explanation.
When you do uncover these gaps, treat them as learning opportunities, not signs of weakness.
After all, successful innovation rests on the assumption that you and the people around you
have a high-quality understanding of the problem. Sometimes, uncovering the flaw in that
assumption will help you find a solution.
MORE ON KNOCKING DOWN BARRIERS TO INNOVATION
Turn Your Company into a Customer Platform
Managers Don’t Really Want to Innovate
Innovators, Are You Applying the Wrong Lessons from
Manufacturing?
Don’t Cripple Innovation for the Sake of This Quarter’s Numbers
Art Markman, PhD, is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing at the
University of Texas at Austin and founding director of the program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations. He
has written over 150 scholarly papers on topics including reasoning, decision making, and motivation. He is the
author of several books including Smart Thinking, Smart Change, and Habits of Leadership.
This article is about INNOVATION
FOLLOW THIS TOPIC
Related Topics: MANAGING YOURSELF
Comments
Leave a Comment
POST
0 COMMENTS
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
POSTING GUIDELINES
We hope the conversations that take place on HBR.org will be energetic, constructive, and thought-provoking. To comment, readers must sign
in or register. And to ensure the quality of the discussion, our moderating team will review all comments and may edit them for clarity, length,
and relevance. Comments that are overly promotional, mean-spirited, or off-topic may be deleted per the moderators' judgment. All postings
become the property of Harvard Business Publishing.
