Flip Side of Expertise

Experts and their expertise is perceived by the majority of us as an all desirable quality of an individual. Experts are individuals with specialised knowledge in their functional area(s). Experts have talents or special abilities to perform the skills associated with their expertise with utmost brilliance and at a negligible rate of error. Now, let’s hold this thought and ponder if this is really the case? Are experts always right and 'know-it-all'?

With this article, I would like to draw the light to alternate and less acknowledged realities about being an expert.

Experts are individuals with great depth and breadth of knowledge, acquired and developed through years of practice, research, and experience in their respective areas. But with all these positives, a few negatives are also complimentary in their journey. 

 

• Knowledge Chunking: Something that distinguishes an expert and a novice is the unconscious process of knowledge chunking by experts. After years of experience and practice, experts unconsciously start processing information in unitisation rather than processing information in its nuances. Undoubtedly, it has its bright side of faster problem solving and decision making. But it obstructs them to process data when presented in raw or single bits. For example, during a well put-up game of chess, they may have an ensured win but when given one piece of chess like a king or a queen, they may take some time to decide its move. This chunking allows them to see the bigger picture but at the same time makes it difficult to process individual elements of it. 

• Struggles in Knowledge Transferability: Have you taken driving lessons from your mom/dad who is an expert at driving? Just when you start feeling that you have mastered the skill, you are blatantly reminded how roughly you were steering the wheel or how you still have to be reminded of changing the gears. For someone new to driving, you may feel that you were not so bad after all. Trust me, you weren’t. An expert’s brain, unlike an amateur, works on an auto mode where things happen without any conscious effort by them. For e.g.: a person driving car or a doctor performing surgery. This makes their information processing and actions swift but at the same time, comes with a cost. For an expert, it is one of the most challenging tasks to train or backtrack to the level of a novice. This seldom hinders their ability to be good mentors or teachers in their area of expertise.

• Selective Attention: We may have all seen how experts are so good at solving the most difficult of tasks in short time intervals. This counts for their ability to focus on selective details of a task. Due to repeated exposure and practice with the toughest of situations over time, they become conditioned to mentally segregate and focus their attention only on aspects of a situation that are important in a context. In other words, they are well-versed in the process of elimination. But this selective attention is not completely free from their personal bias. As they don’t focus on all parts of a situation, many times, their personal biases may overpower their judgment of what is relevant/irrelevant.

• Misperceiving overconfidence as confidence: Having expert knowledge and skills makes one a reservoir of in-depth knowledge and something one should be proud of and confident about. But sometimes, continuous appreciations, upliftment, and recognitions occupies an experts’ mind and attitude with overconfidence. Overconfidence of being right and unquestionable in most situations. In a real sense, this is not empowerment or confidence but an area requiring acceptance and improvement. A confident person will be secure and logically acknowledge when someone shares an alternate view. However, an overconfident person will cease to accept if a contrary argument is proposed. This at times, is reflected in an expert’s behaviour.

• Tunnel Vision: Tunnel vision is a psychological concept that constricts a person’s ability to broaden their perspectives concerning varying situations. Being an expert can sometimes be a trade-off when a person starts seeing things in a unidimensional perception. For e.g.: “I am a subject-matter expert and no one can know more than me on this topic” is a thought process that directs that a person is moving towards a tunnelled vision. This is frequently seen in how, many experts struggle to have a multi-dimensional view of things, as for them their way of exploring and implementing knowledge is the one-best method.

These are a few areas an expert may encounter obstructions and at the same time be unaware of such mental or behavioural conditioning. But it’s not something impossible to counter if one tries to. Some ways that may prove to be helpful are: 

• Introspecting and accepting these patterns of behaviour in yourself. 

• Trying to move out of your area(s) of functional expertise and exploring new fields. Relive the feelings of being a beginner. 

• Conscious avoidance of blocking new knowledge from multiple sources. It could be some new development that you get to learn from a new hire in your team or if you are a teacher, then from your student. 

• Be more patient and calmer while imparting practical or conceptual knowledge to your subordinates. Be their enabler. Remember you are an expert, not they!        

• It’s not always necessary to be fast-paced and prompt in thinking. Slow-down a bit and sometimes try to process things in their raw state. Rather than acting on it right away, try making a conscious effort to see it bit by bit.

Be an Expert, it’s a treasure of knowledge after all. But try to be a mindful one!