The tragedy of untapped expertise
Monday, June 3, 2019 at 9:42AM 
The tragedy of untapped expertise.
How often in a meeting, you know what’s happening, you have experience to add, you’ve seen the thing, done the thing the group is thinking about or working on ... yet your experience is:
* Overlooked
* Ignored
* Forgotten
* Dismissed
* Excluded
* Bypassed
* Invisible?
A life hack calendar on my wall has the quote: "Learning from mistakes is wise, learning from the mistakes of others is quicker and easier”. Your experience is awesome and valuable. Do not ever, ever doubt that.
What’s missing is a way to gather that experience, synthesise it, make sense of it and bring it into the team and organisation. Simply telling an ‘I’ve done this’ or a ‘When I worked at x’ story doesn't seem to cover the breadth and depth of our experiences.
So leaders: you must elicit the expertise in the room, team or group. No matter who, or what or from where. It’s one of the biggest no-brainers in the workplace today too often overlooked. For planning, strategy, problem solving, you don’t need to always start at the zero point. You’ve got incredible expertise on tap, and you’re simply - and seriously - not tapping it. Get tapping.
How does it feel to not be 'seen' or heard?