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You can’t trust the expert ….
By definition, an expert is a person who has acquired a high level of skill, knowledge, and experience in a specific area. Based on the expert’s deep and comprehensive understanding of the subject matter and accumulated hands-on experience within their field, the expert’s perspective can be valuable.
Unfortunately, I believe that expertise — especially deep specialised knowledge — is highly contextual and its value is contingent on the specific context in which the knowledge is applied. In an environment of rapid technological disruption, extreme ambiguity, and disruptions to traditional paradigms, an expert’s opinion is unlikely to be valuable if the expert’s knowledge is tied to hereunto outdated frameworks and mental models.
In a VUCA environment, unless the expert has the agility, adaptability, and a commitment to continuous learning (accepting that they could be wrong), the expert will rely on outdated knowledge and will be unable to provide the necessary perspectives to successfully navigate the new environment.
Hence, before you trust the expert’s advice, it would be wise to first assess the expert’s mindset (and flexibility) towards uncertainty and change.
