{"id":834,"date":"2011-06-11T22:08:02","date_gmt":"2011-06-11T22:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=834"},"modified":"2011-06-11T22:08:02","modified_gmt":"2011-06-11T22:08:02","slug":"a-one-eyed-man-in-the-land-of-the-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=834","title":{"rendered":"The One-Eyed Man in the Land of the Blind."},"content":{"rendered":"

“T<\/em>here are known knowns; there are things we know we know.<\/em>
\nWe also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.<\/em>
\nBut there are also unknown unknowns \u2013 the ones we don’t know we don’t know.\u201d Donald Rumsfeld 2002<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This infamous quotation is a humorously clumsy way of expressing a profound concept.\u00a0This statement is about our collective ignorance – and it hides a\u00a0beguiling\u00a0assumption which is that we are all\u00a0so similar\u00a0that we just have to accept the things that we all do not know. It is OK to be collectively and blissfully ignorant. But is this\u00a0OK? Is this\u00a0not the self-justifying mantra of those who live in the\u00a0Land of the Blind?<\/p>\n

Our collective blissful ignorance holds the promise of\u00a0great unknown\u00a0gains; and harbours the potential\u00a0of\u00a0great untold\u00a0pain.<\/p>\n

Our collective knowledge is vast and is growing because we have dissolved many Unknowns.\u00a0 For each there must have been a\u00a0point in time when the first\u00a0person\u00a0become painfully aware of their ignorance\u00a0and, by some means, discovered\u00a0some new\u00a0knowledge. When that happened they had a number of options – to keep it to themselves, to share it with those they knew,\u00a0or to share it with strangers. The innovators dilemma is that when they\u00a0share new knowledge they know they will cause emotional pain;\u00a0because to share knowledge with the blissfully ignorant\u00a0implies\u00a0pushing\u00a0them to\u00a0the state of painful awareness.<\/p>\n

We are social animals and\u00a0we demonstrate\u00a0empathy and\u00a0respect\u00a0for others, so we do not want to deliberately cause them\u00a0emotional pain – even the short term pain of awareness that must preceed\u00a0the long term gain of knowledge, understanding and wisdom.\u00a0It is\u00a0the constant challenge that every parent,\u00a0every teacher,\u00a0every coach,\u00a0every mentor,\u00a0every leader and every healer has to learn to master.<\/p>\n

So, how do we deal with\u00a0the situation when we are painfully aware that\u00a0others are in the state of blissful ignorance – of not knowing what they do not know\u00a0– and we know that making them aware will be emotionally painful for them – just as it was for us? We know from experience that that an insensitive, clumsy, blunt, brutal,\u00a0just-tell-it-as-it is approach can cause\u00a0pain-but-no-gain;\u00a0we have all had experience of\u00a0others who seem to gain a perverse pleasure from the emotional impact they generate\u00a0by\u00a0triggering\u00a0painful awareness.\u00a0The disrespectful\u00a0“means-justifies-the-ends” and “cruel-to-be-kind” mindset is the mantra of those who do\u00a0not walk their own talk – those who do\u00a0not challenge their own blissful ignorance – those who do\u00a0not\u00a0seek to gain\u00a0an understanding\u00a0of how\u00a0to\u00a0foster effective learning\u00a0without inflicting emotional pain.<\/p>\n

The no-pain-no-gain life limiting belief is an excuse – not a barrier. It is possible to learn without pain – we have all been doing it for our whole lives; each of us can think of\u00a0people who inspired us to learn and to have fun doing so – rare and memorable\u00a0role models,\u00a0bright stars\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0darkness of\u00a0disappointment. Our challenge is to learn how to inspire\u00a0ourselves.<\/p>\n

The first step\u00a0is\u00a0to create an emotionally\u00a0Safe Environment for Learning and Fun (SELF).\u00a0For\u00a0the leader\/teacher\/healer this requires\u00a0developing an\u00a0ability to\u00a0build a culture of trust by actively unlearning their own trust-corroding-behaviours.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second\u00a0step\u00a0is to know what we know – to be sure of our facts and confident that\u00a0we can explain and support\u00a0what\u00a0we know with evidence and insight. To\u00a0deliberately push someone into painful awareness with\u00a0no means to\u00a0guide them\u00a0out of that dark\u00a0place is\u00a0disrespectful and untrustworthy behaviour. Learning how to teach what\u00a0we know is the most effective means to discover\u00a0our own depth of\u00a0understanding and it is\u00a0an energising exercise in humility development!\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0third\u00a0step is for us to have the courage to raise awareness in a sensitive and respectful way – sometimes this is done by demonstrating the knowledge; sometimes this is done by asking carefully framed questions; and sometimes it is done as a respectful challenge.\u00a0\u00a0The three approaches are not mutually exclusive:\u00a0leading-by-example is\u00a0effective but\u00a0leaders need to be\u00a0teachers and healers too.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At all stages the challenge for the\u00a0leader\/teacher\/healer\u00a0is to\u00a0to ensure\u00a0they maintain an OK-OK mental model of those\u00a0they\u00a0influence. This is\u00a0the most difficult skill\u00a0to attain\u00a0and is the most important. The\u00a0“Leadership and Self-Deception<\/em>” book that is\u00a0in the Library of Improvement Science is a parable that decribes this challenge.<\/p>\n

So, how\u00a0do\u00a0we dissolve\u00a0the One-Eyed Man in the Land of the Blind problem? How do we raise awareness\u00a0of a collective blissful ignorance? How do we share\u00a0something that is going to\u00a0cause untold pain and misery in the future –\u00a0a storm that is building over the horizon of awareness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) was the young\u00a0Hungarian doctor who in 1847 discovered the\u00a0dramatic live-saving benefit of\u00a0the doctors\u00a0cleaning their hands before\u00a0entering the obstetric ward of the Vienna Hospital. This was before “germs” had been discovered and\u00a0Semmelweis could\u00a0not explain how\u00a0his discovery\u00a0worked –\u00a0all he could do was to exhort others to\u00a0do as he did. He did not learn how the method worked, he did not publish his data, and he demonstrated trust-eroding behaviour when he\u00a0accused others of “murder”\u00a0when they did not do as he told them.\u00a0 The fact the he was correct did not justify the means by which\u00a0he\u00a0challenged their collective blissful ignorance (see http:\/\/www.valuesystemdesign.com<\/a>\u00a0for a fuller account).\u00a0 The book that he eventually published in 1861\u00a0includes the data that supports\u00a0our modern\u00a0understanding of the importance of\u00a0hand hygiene – but it also includes a passionate\u00a0diatribe of how he had been wronged by others – a\u00a0dramatic\u00a0example of the “I’m OK and The Rest of the World is Not OK”\u00a0worldview.\u00a0Semmelweis was committed to a lunatic asylum and died there in 1865.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>W Edwards Deming (1900-1993) was the American engineer, mathematician, mathematical physicist, statistician and student of Walter A. Shewhart who learned the importance of quality in design.\u00a0After WWII he was part of the team\u00a0who helped to rebuild the Japanese economy and\u00a0he taught the Japanese what he had learned\u00a0and practiced during WWII – which was how to create a high-quality, high-speed, high-efficiency process which, ironically, was building ships for the war effort. Later Deming attempted, and failed,\u00a0to influence the post-war\u00a0generation of\u00a0managers that were being churned out by the new\u00a0business schools to serve the growing\u00a0global demand for American mass produced consumer goods. Deming\u00a0returned to relative obscurity in the USA\u00a0until 1980 when his teachings were rediscovered\u00a0when Japan\u00a0started to challenge\u00a0the USA economically by producing higher-quality-and-lower-cost consumer products such as cars and electronics (\u00a0http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/W._Edwards_Deming<\/a>). Before he died in 1993 Deming wrote two books – Out of The Crisis <\/em>and The New Economics\u00a0<\/em>in which\u00a0he outlines his learning and his philosophy and in which he unreservedly and passionately blames\u00a0the managers and the business schools that trained them\u00a0for their arrogant attitude and disrespectful behaviour. Like Semmelweis, the fact that his books contain a deep well of wisdom\u00a0does not justify the means by which he disseminated his criticism\u00a0of poeple – in particular of senior management. By doing so he probably\u00a0created resistance and delayed the spread of knowledge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

History is repeating itself:\u00a0the same story is being played out in the global healthcare system. Neither senior doctors nor senior managers are aware of the opportunity that\u00a0the learning of Semmelweis and Deming represent – the opportunity of\u00a0Improvement Science\u00a0and of the theory, techniques and tools of Operations Management. The global healthcare system is in a state of\u00a0collective blissful ignorance.\u00a0\u00a0Our\u00a0descendents be the recipients of of decisions and the judges of our behaviour –\u00a0and time is running out –\u00a0we do not have the luxury of\u00a0learning by making the same mistake.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there is an\u00a0growing group of people who are painfully aware of the problem and are voicing their concerns – such as the Institute of Healthcare Improvement \u00a0in America. There is a smaller and less well organised network of people\u00a0who have acquired and applied some of the knowledge and\u00a0are\u00a0able to demonstrate how it works – the Know Hows. There appears to be an even smaller\u00a0group who understand and use the principles but do it intuitively and\u00a0unconsciously – they\u00a0dem0nstrate what is possible but\u00a0find it difficult to teach others how to\u00a0do what they do. It is the\u00a0Know How group that\u00a0is the key to dissolving the problem.<\/p>\n

The first collective challenge\u00a0is to\u00a0sign-post\u00a0some safe paths\u00a0from Collective Blissful Ignorance to Individual Know How. The second collective challenge is to\u00a0learn\u00a0an effective\u00a0and respectful\u00a0way to raise awareness of the problem – a way to outline the current reality and the future\u00a0opportunity – and a way that\u00a0illuminates the paths that link the two.<\/p>\n

In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is the person who\u00a0discovers that\u00a0everyone\u00a0is wearing a head-torch by\u00a0accidentally finding his own and switching\u00a0it on!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns \u2013 the ones we don’t know we don’t know.\u201d Donald Rumsfeld 2002.\u00a0 This infamous quotation is a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The One-Eyed Man in the Land of the Blind.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,23,35,43,45,46,48],"tags":[60,124,133,137,151,155,192,278,306],"class_list":["post-834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthcare","category-history","category-reflections","category-why","category-what","category-teach","category-trust","tag-blissful-ignorance","tag-healership","tag-history","tag-ignaz-semmelweiss","tag-know-how","tag-leadership","tag-painful-awareness","tag-teachership","tag-w-edwards-deming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}