It’s a cute but profound challenge – how does one understand, conceive, or even glimpse that which one has no awareness of?
In the Western world, particularly in the dog-eat-dog Western business world it is risky, perhaps career-altering, to say “I don’t know”. More usually there are euphemisms: “Can you elaborate on that?”, “Tell me more”, just plain old fashioned denial: if it doesn’t exist it can’t affect me or even more extreme – a vacuum.
What is “it”? Could be many things:
- a nascent but emerging trend – not long ago many of us had no idea what is “Twitter”
- an advancement or refinement in a discipline – business analysis, as an example, is an area of management practice that is making many strides in developing tools, techniques and standards of practice
- a radical development that begins to penetrate our narrow lives, like … terrorism, energy conservation, hybrid cars
The compelling thing about “what I don’t know” is that it will affect me – changes me – love it, hate it or ambivalent about it – it broadens my view of the world.
So I say, “bring it”.