Tag: Jeopardy Knowledge

Knowledge is Active

Post author By jrlsage
Post date March 30, 2017

Let’s talk about “Jeopardy Knowledge” for a second.

At the start of 2017, we spent a month going over what it meant, the dangers, and some of the active use of working with “the surface.”

After spending this month working through “emotional layering” another piece of the puzzle suddenly makes sense.

Learning something requires our whole selves coming to play.

Often, we just rely on the rational, as if learning something is a switch on a wall.

“On” or “Off.”

Our brains don’t work like that.

Knowledge at the surface is passive and stagnant. Mastery is active, growing like tentacles of vines on the side of an old house.

If we don’t acknowledge that incoming information can play with our emotions and then recognize that feeling, we get stagnant. We risk only staying at the surface.

From the surface, the only knowledge we get is “Jeopardy Knowledge.” Working with only that is a quick way to lose the room when it matters.

Tags emotional layering, Jeopardy Knowledge, knowledge

Blog Post

“I Don’t Know” is Scary and Useful

Post author By jrlsage
Post date January 2, 2017

It’s hard to say “I don’t know.”

Our professional training, education, and households steer us away from “I don’t know.” To those who are comfortable with mediocrity, it’s laziness. Apparently, you didn’t “do the work.” You get punished after resulting in the lost promotion, the bad grade, or getting grounded.

Apparently, you didn’t “do the work.” You get punished after resulting in the lost promotion, the bad grade, or getting grounded.

Sometimes, that phrase “I don’t know” comes from a lack of effort.

Most of the time, it originates from a lack of process, instruction, or leadership.

Those who shy away from “I don’t know” cap their organizations’ potential, leaving them at mediocrity.

This insight is hard to acknowledge and becomes even more challenging when we apply “Jeopardy Knowledge” instead of knowing.

Even though it’s hard, it’s the first step in turning something superficial into something useful.

Growth is painful. Appreciate people saying “I don’t know” to you and attempt to say it more yourself.

Tags don't know, Jeopardy Knowledge

Blog Post

Jeopardy Knowledge – Using What You Know – January 2017

Post author By jrlsage
Post date January 1, 2017

Life isn’t a game show

First, let’s define.

Jeopardy knowledge: Knowledge that works for a game show yet has no value in the real world.

With information without context being so readily available, it’s easy to attain jeopardy knowledge.

I used to be good at Jeopardy knowledge.

It’s great at dinner parties. People think you are smart because you know the year Martin Luther King Jr. did the “I Have a Dream” speech. However, when it comes to creating work that matters, it’s far more important to know the context, even if you didn’t know the work by name.

Jeopardy knowledge doesn’t bleed into your ideas and helps you set direction.

Getting rid of it, and replacing it with something “real” is a force multiplier.

This month’s theme ties into “direction.”

At the end of last year, I wrote a newsletter highlighting the “three tenets of leadership.” Each month, I take a topic related to one of the three tenets and write about my ideas and experience around the topic.

Reread candidate

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance – If there is someone who is anti-Jeopardy knowledge it would be Elon Musk. He does his research around his big ideas to gather context. If he talks about something, you can be sure he knows enough about it to ask the right questions.

Tags Jeopardy Knowledge