# 7 - Knowledge and Learning

The concept "knowledge is power" is referenced so frequently that it has become a cliché. However, it bears repeating because there remains an unclaimed competitive advantage at its core available for the taking for many organizations. Select 100 random articles from LinkedIn, Harvard Business Review, etc., and it is unlikely that many will be about improving the baseline level of knowledge of an organization. In fact, most articles about business and organization culture implicitly assume that the members of the organization have the requisite professional knowledge needed to make the organization successful. The emphasis is usually about managing and leading the people with this knowledge in an effective fashion and direction. There is no doubt that managing and leading strategies are critical to the success of an organization. However, at the end of the day, if one of two competing financial planning companies is composed of people who have more knowledge than the other company about the financial planning basics, industry trends, and investment tools, that company will likely outperform the other, in time, with all other variables assumed equal.

An organization that does not invest in providing and improving the knowledge of its employees regarding complex systems is asking for trouble. Equally important, is the organization's commitment to learning. Leaders of an organization must develop an environment that encourages its members to continuously seek out new knowledge and resist the "we have always done it that way" culture. Much of this learning will come from taking a hard look at mistakes and not shrinking from the difficult work of identifying root cause and taking corrective action.

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