Today’s blogpost is driven by a concern that experts are irresponsibly encouraging people “you can do this, too.” And those of us who want to learn a new expertise aren’t asking: what will it take for me to become effective? In the world of Excel and Data Management, there are things I’m asked to teach and in some situations the responsible answer has to be “no.”
I’ve talked with others who train, teach and tutor and their response is sometimes “so what? If they’re paying you, who gives a darn if they actually learn it?” To me, that’s Sleaze 401.
But let’s back up because this discussion applies to all areas of expertise, and this was so clear one morning …
A woman called into The Steve Harvey Morning Show and mentioned that she was 39 years old and thinking about going into comedy. Steve replied, “you ain’t gone start this here at 39.”
Sounds cold. Pouring cold water on someone’s vision? Arrogant? No.
Steve’s response to the caller was a warning that a career in comedy requires far more than being funny, and Steve is good at sharing the battles of his early days.
My favorite Steve Harvey story is about him driving from Ohio to Nebraska to perform stand-up at a club. When he got there, he was the only Black person in a small place where people were dancing. Abruptly, the dance floor was cleared and he was unceremoniously introduced, “Ladies and gentlemen: the comedian!”
Oh Damn!
DEER-IN-THE-HEADLIGHTS & OH DAMN! MOMENTS
Think about it. Whatever your expertise is, you’ve had those “Oh Damn!” moments and they shape what kind of expert you’ve become, they’ve defined your best practices, and developed your ability to see trouble ahead.
One of my “Oh Damn!” moments was when I incorrectly processed sales commissions and someone almost got way more than he’d actually earned. That visceral experience cannot be taught. I can teach the Excel formulas, but I remember training someone and it was clear that she was not grasping the seriousness of the matter.
She took her notes and went through the steps but she needed the experience of personally screwing something up and being called on the carpet. That’s part of complete expertise. And I was concerned that she might get the how-to but completely collapse under the constant scrutiny that’s part of the job.
WE CAN TEACH THE HOW-TO
WE CAN’T TEACH EXPERIENCE
“If I can do it, anybody can do it” = Irresponsible Bullshit
People are good. We want to help each other. We don’t want to “give up on someone.” We love a good underdog story that defies the odds and raises a middle-finger to the naysayers. But this romanticizes and belittles hard work, and sets people up for miserable failure. Hence: irresponsible bullshit.
Had Steve Harvey encouraged that 39-yr old caller to pursue a career in comedy, that would have glossed over a basic requirement of having a life that’s set up for driving cross-country to perform in unfriendly venues … for no money.
In the world of Data Management, Steve Susina of Crains Communications recently did a presentation on Marketing Automation. One piece of advice he gave was “learn your Venn diagrams.” It was great to hear Steve Susina say that because it cut through to the heart of working with data. Yes! There’s more than spending $200/month on slick apps.
Some people simply do not think in terms of Venn diagrams, subsets and logic. And that’s when I have to decline teaching someone how to scrub datasets. Are they sub-human? Hell no. In one instance, the person is a stellar salesperson. And:
- He doesn’t spend his days elbows-deep in data, like I have for 15 years.
- He is great a creating relationships and supporting people in ways that I cannot and am not interested in.
- Undoubtedly, he’s had many years of “Oh DAMN!” moments that have shaped his sales expertise.
Teaching him data scrubbing would be a complete waste of his money.
One more example of experience-informing-expertise:
I was talking with Irreverent Salesgirl (ISG) about a disastrous situation that I had with a prospective client. ISG immediately identified the encounter as “buy versus build.” Prospects who make a decision from a “buy versus build” mindset are NEVER happy with their decision. It’s best to step away from such prospects rather than engage in a professional agreement until they are ready to make a decision to either build or buy.
Irreverent Salesgirl’s insight came from years of experience in her expertise, not an online workshop for the low low one-time price of $700, $550, $300, $149.
WHATEVER OUR EXPERTISE IS,
LET’S RESPECT THE HARD WORK WE PUT IN
We cheapen what we do when we toss it out for mass consumption. It also engenders contempt when an expert has tried to teach someone who doesn’t put in the work, can’t grasp key concepts or, can’t leave her kids to go build the foundation of a comedy career. But it’s the expert who was being irresponsible by focusing on the how-to and not the context.
We all have expertise in something and have our own hurdles in our respective lanes. Be very careful about switching lanes or inviting others to join your lane and jump your hurdles that may have taken you 10 years to master.
Steve Harvey in Yellow Suit courtesy of Sharon Graphics
Head & Leaves image credit: smuiblue via freedigitalphotos.net
Hurdlers photo credit: wwarby via photopin cc
Oz, this is GREAT stuff!
I agree! When an Expert says they can help you learn something, find out two things:
1) Do THEY really know how to do it? You have NO idea how many people I have run into who have failed in an area of expertise, so decided to become a coach instead. granted, some people were born to coach and are good at it. These are few and far between.
2) Who ELSE have they helped? Ask the Expert to refer you to people they have helped and dig in with those people on the REAL story. If you are really bold, ask the Expert who has worked with them that they COULDN’T help. Find out why. Does it map onto your situation?
Do not rely on testimonials. Often, someone has simply offered a testimonial (or was paid for their testimonial) without ever trying the product. I mean, please. Do you think that Sarah Jessica Parker uses out-of-the-box hair color?
If you are investing in your education or professional development, make sure you know what you are getting!
Also, take Oz’s advice: Figure out if it is really worth your time to learn this skill. What will it take to get really good at it?
I have heard that true mastery requires 10,000 hours. Perhaps it makes more sense to hire someone.
Love your expertise UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
iSalesGirl thanks so so much for chiming in and thanks for your interest and support.
Your diligence warning adds another dimension. Some so-called experts are people who may know a lot but haven’t proven successful. I was at a camp for bass players and we were warned: DO NOT take bass lessons from a bassist who doesn’t have a gig. Again, that speaks to the context and not the how-to.
The bassist may have mind-blowing skill but … they never think they’re good enough to play publicly or, they have a righteous attitude and have proven to be lousy bandmates. Mind-blowing skill inside a warped context is a disaster waiting to happen.
In that 10,000-hours guideline there’s room for lots and lots of contextual, real-life experience. If the so-called expert isn’t there, skip it. If the learner is interested in expertise and doesn’t have 10,000 hours, let it go.
ONWARD!
Oz! How’s things! Love Steve Harvey! And I agree with some of
this, but I am not sure I completely understand the underlying basis for
the post, so i am not in 100%. Hopefully i am not going off on an
unintended tangent.
On the surface, I get it. Some people are
not wired for data analysis. And I agree 100% that you cannot teach
“experience”. But, I am not sure a lack of data exposure (up to elbows)
establishes a lack of need. There are many people in the work force
whose job is not specifically data related, but in order for them to
effectively work with data, they:
-Need to develop the skills or
-Need
to be aware of the effort, so they can manage expectations with anyone
relying on them to deliver some results in a meeting, or data for a
PowerPoint slide
I agree that in some cases, there are other
opportunities for non-data folks to get their needs met, but not they
are always available. Everyday I work with people that have other
significant, primary skillsets: pharmacists, doctors, nurses, clinical
coordinators, executives, executive assistants, entrepreneurs, friends,
family and others. As the large and medium-size workplace shrinks, it
demands more from their workforce,. People need to be more data savvy.
Entrepreneurs and people in new start ups need to wear many hats.
Desktop applications like Excel and Access open up a world of opportunity for many people to be more self-sufficient.
They
may not get it at first. But if there is a need, they will eventually
understand it and embrace it. To this point, if I work with a person
that can define the “end result”, we work together to deconstruct it
into all the pieces and step our way back to the data. Then we work
forwards with the data. It may take a session or two, but they get
exposure to the entire process of gathering and cleaning data to
developing the “end result” because they need that “end result”. If
people never shared with me..and showed me, i would never have learned.
So
again. I hope I have not misinterpreted your point and gone in another
direction. I would say that if someone wanted to learn and attend a
class, let them. Just be up front that the class is not an introduction
to working with data sets. If they decide to attend and don’t get it,
they have learned that you were correct when you told them that the
class was not for them…and that you were honest. I think that if you
act in good faith, there is nothing wrong with letting someone try, as
long as they don’t impede the flow of the class.
Best regards
awolfe57
Great examples and I agree 100% that we need more data-savvy people. And Excel is a fantastic tool because it doesn’t have a steep learning curve like C++, PHP or R.
The question you ask allows me to make a distinction that I now see isn’t clear.
In my example I wanted to highlight specifically data-scrubbing, as opposed to teaching something like pivot tables or IF statements. I do teach a pivot tables workshop. However, data-scrubbing isn’t for someone who doesn’t regularly use Excel. And that’s what I’m trying to get at. When a person does sales (or something else) in 80% of their professional life, can I teach basic pivot tables … yes. Let’s do that. Teach them to scrub 2000 rows of sales and inventory data? No. Not for someone who spends 10 hours/month in Excel and wants to learn in a single 2-hr workshop.
I’m thinking expertise vs. “good enough” and setting responsible expectations.
But even larger than Excel, I’m concerned about a lot of workshops, membership sites and other products where someone is pushing “buy this and you can do what I do.” I’m calling BS because years of contextual experience can’t be taught. A person really needs a mentor–like you describe as the people who were patient with you (and me) and helped us learn along the way.
awolfe57 Great response!
From my perspective, Oz is proposing two pain points:
1) He wants to build a business and he finds so many Experts “out there” for hire – who have not made a difference.
Which also leads to:
2) He wants to differentiate himself as someone who has a real answer (and he does) to people who LIKELY don’t even KNOW the depth or the problem they have – or that they can be solved – but not as easily as they might imagine. AND he doesn’t want to be part or the “I have a solution – when I don’t” problem on the web.
Any thoughts?
Love ’em UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl
iSalesGirl awolfe57
YES! ISG, you’re getting even deeper into the concern that motivated this blogpost.
There’s a responsibility to be upfront about what can be taught, by whom, to whom and at what level of expertise. In your point #2 about solutions not being as easy as imagined, that’s really key, and this is when experts also need to be consultants. I think “prerequisites” is the word. There could be a lot more stated about prerequisites, and less “everybody pile in.”
And yes, that’s part of my business philosophy. I want to provide solutions that will stick. Aside from teaching, it’s also meant turning down gigs when I’ve noticed a potential client has a challenge with processes and not with software.