“What” is more Important than “How”
June 10, 2010
The return on an investment in “How” is much less than the return from an investment in “What”.
Learning about “What” concerns itself with things like “what exists?”, “what do people want?” and “what can be done?”. Learning about “How” concerns itself with “how is this done”, “how does that work”, “how do they do that”. Knowledge about “What” leads to answers about “when” and “why”. These kinds of answers lead to leverage which can lead to profit. Learning about “How” is easy but leads only to competition. Anyone can learn “How” to do something, but if they don’t know when or why, then they’ve only positioned themselves to be used like a tool.
Tools are interchangeable so the ones who know “How” are easily swapped around leaving them with no real power over their destiny. Tools can also become obsolete and get replaced by something better. If the only goal is acquiring knowledge about “How” but no research into “What” has been done then good decisions about picking the “How’s” to invest in can’t be made.
To be really useful as an individual or company, it’s knowledge about “What” that is most important.
Phil
kurtlane
Greg Stickley
June 12, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Reading your post, I thought of this video that discusses why, how and what as it relates to leadership: http://bit.ly/9Hd8ps.
June 14, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Thanks for sharing that video, the speaker makes a very good point. What he is saying sounds right to me but I think I may be focused on a time before “Why” can really have any meaning to a company or individual. Exploration and experience comes from asking “What” questions and from this exploration, conclusions can be made. Without experience, a solid core “Why” can’t really be achieved. “What” knowledge is acquired as we “feel” around the world and bump into reality. Only after we’ve bumped into a few things can we start to ask “Why”.
So I should amend my post to indicate that it applies to the group or individual with little or no experience.