I KNOW - AND SO DO YOU

Brothers and sisters, in the matters of knowing we must remember and maintain reasonable modesty. We do not know all, and in particular we do not know what is the situation where our brothers and sisters operate.

This magnificent internet era provides a possibility to watch different presentations. Also many of us hear a lot of key notes and speeches in different events. And organizations are full of inspiring executive talk and all kinds of models developed by experts in headquarters. Often the speaker and/or developer really seems to know her/his topic - which is just great. But sometimes the modesty does not seem part of picture. And as you can guess I am talking about the modesty in a very special way. What I mean with modesty here  is epistemological modesty. Epistemological modesty gives to a speaker an acute sense to understand what s/he knows - and what s/he does not know. Epistemological modesty suggest that we cannot create understanding for others, they will do it by themselves, if they choose to do so.

You see, around every person there is a kingdom of knowledge, where that person by herself/himself is the master. Let us look at the following picture. In that picture there are four main elements: 1) a person,  2) her/his kingdom of knowledge (green marks), 3) the world of daily work (the world of everyday discussions, etc.), 4) new ideas (red marks). Also there is a picture of a torch on the left, that is a symbol University of Jyväskylä and in general a symbol of understanding.

The general idea in this picture is that in our daily work we talk and handle issues which rather familiar to us. Hence the area of daily work is the easy area for us. It is the area which provides continuation to our life. When we want to learn, change and develop we often think that what we need are new ideas. That is all fine, new ideas are very important. But please take a notice, here new ideas are not yet our own ideas. We are still in a listening mode.

Hence, even more important than new ideas are those matters which are very, very close us. These matters, which belong to our kingdom of knowledge,  are such which we can really change if we just possess the understanding, knowledge, will and energy to do so. These matters can be very practical things i.e. our ways of acting in different situations, or they can relate to our understanding, values, etc.

And here lies the crux of development. We must create settings where people are willing and capable to use new ideas in their own kingdom of knowledge. You might think that this is easy and something which happens almost automatically. I dare to propose that we must not overlook these things, not personally and not when we wish to develop organizations.

So whenever we speak, no matter from which position we speak,  we have to remember the epistemological modesty. This means an attitude. "I know - and so do you". In practical terms this means that we genuinely invite people to speak their truth and share what is essential and possible in their kingdom of knowledge.

This is the route to dialogue which may provide something new to us all.