Don't Let your Knowledge Get in the way of your Problem Solving

Have you had this happen to you? You are working on a problem on a system that you are the expert on and have been stuck for hours even days. Then your less knowledgeable colleague walks by to help and immediately solves the issue!? Frustrating right? Lets examine why this can happen and what we should learn from these events as IT professionals.

The more knowledgeable we become in a technology and the more success that we have the more sure of ourselves we become. Unfortunately this can lead us to build unhealthy assumptions of "how things work" and even lead to a sort of arrogance. Assumptions are the enemy of problem solvers everywhere. As IT professionals we must always keep a open mind and guard against becoming resistant to problem solving suggestions that do not match our perceived conceptual model of how a system works. We have to accept that our model might be wrong and have to be willing allow for a fresh perspective. This is much easier said then done, especially into the 9th hour of working on a problem.

So again, why did our less knowledgeable colleague solve that problem that we, the expert, could not? Because they don't have our expert knowledge nor the assumptions that knowledge creates. In otherwards they had a fresh perspective to the problem free of assumptions. That doesn't make us lesser or a failure. In fact, I propose that the IT Professional that can step back and ask someone to take a fresh look at a problem is showing wisdom and experience that many of us still need to learn to embrace.

Corey Wishon, President Wishon Solutions, LLC

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