As I watch Justin Trudeau make his first steps as the new Prime Minister of Canada, I reflect on criticisms leveled at him during the campaign regarding his inexperience. His opponents tried to highlight this by running a campaign theme "Justin? He's just not ready". We often hear this about young politicians - so and so doesn't have the experience. And I wonder - what experience are we seeking? Typically, we mean they haven't been in politics for a long time, equating tenure with the ability to get the job done. Many politicians have dismal track records of results - not carrying out their mandate, not getting things done and decline in the well-being of their constituents. Is this the experience we value and want more of? Perhaps experience is highly overrated.
We seem to have lost the original meaning of experience, which comes from the Latin experiri meaning "to try, test". Nowadays, experience means that you have done something so often that you have become good at it. Which I believe actually causes us to stop trying and testing. After all, if we are good at something why would we stop doing it? We remain in the safe space of our expertise. So that when we are placed in new situations, we are unwilling or unable to adapt, so fearful are we of trying, testing - and failing!
In organizations, when we seek someone to fill a post, we always say we want "experience". And typically this means they have done the same, or closely similar, job before. Yet do we want someone to come into our organization steeped in a certain way of doing things? For their previous experience was in a different time and organizational context and may not apply. Which explains why high-flying CEOs move from success in one organization to failure in another - they were hired for their experience in one arena that became a shackle in another.
The world is ever changing, and to keep up, so must we. Yet how do we keep up if we are shackled by our past? Remember, the experience has come from our past "knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone" (www.dictionary.com). If what one observes, encounters or undergoes is constantly changing, then our experience is in danger of becoming obsolete. What we really need is experience in identifying change and crafting strategies to respond to it. We need experience in enquiry, in curiosity.
Please note that I am not saying that knowledge and experience in an industry or in a particular function is not important. For sure, we want someone who has performed operations many times doing our surgery; we definitely need experienced accountants managing our books and computer-savvy technicians maintaining our operating systems. However, as one moves into leadership positions, I believe this technical or functional experience becomes less important. You will have competent technical team members who have the requisite, deep industry knowledge and experience. Your job is to listen to them, rather than to force actions based solely on your past experience.
Remember this the next time you are interviewing candidates for a position - yes, by all means scan their resumes which represent the summation of their "experience". But dig deep to find out what they really are experienced in - what they have observed in the past, what challenged them, how they responded, what worked and what didn't. That is likely to give you a valued team player who is constantly building his/her bank of "experience" whilst staying curious and questioning. And that's perhaps the best experience of all.