Von Löwen Designs

“An expert is a fellow who is afraid to learn anything new because then he wouldn’t be an expert anymore.” – Harry S. Truman

The typical narrowband expert is a specialist who delivers data and information, they know their skill-set and carefully and obsessively define where their proficiency begins and ends. Whereas the broadband expert, an authority as well, is someone who has a core expertise onto which they layer knowledge of related (and sometimes unrelated) fields. The result is a designer/advisor with technical depth rather than just a technical specialist. Scary words for some I realize, but in my humble opinion, except where there is a temporary shortage of a particular skill – purely technical specialists are interchangeable and easily replaced. The truly valued professional is the one who not only brings functional expertise, but one who seeks improvement, embraces technology and understands the totality of their client’s perspective, including their lifestyle, their neighborhood, family life and even their business life.

The evolution of both railroads and telecommunications provides befitting analogies for the concept of the broadband thinker. In the nineteenth century, there were many track gauges, or widths, used by American railroads, most were very narrow; the relatively wide-gauge track in use today had not yet become the standard. Wide-gauge tracks have many advantages over narrow-gauge ones, being more stable and versatile; the driver can see farther around curves and permits higher train speeds. Similarly, today’s communication technologies far exceed the performance of the narrowband use of dial-up and twisted-pair connections. Could you image conducting business @ 56k over a telephone line?

Designers today need to step out of their comfort zones and adopt a broadband, wide-gauge approach to knowledge and learning; if you do anything less, you really run the risk that your expertise will become an abandoned service and no longer the asset it once was – ending up like one of the many isolated, narrow-gauge and unused railways throughout the mountains that can no longer connect to the nationwide rail system.

Great professionals, and teachers alike, love to learn and become skilled at learning. A prerequisite to becoming a broadband expert is to cultivate a learning attitude. This attitude, and its consequences, can be summed up by the Zen proverb: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” The elements of this powerful message deserve a closer look:

• The student – Great learners think of themselves as perpetual students. Even when teaching, these learners are working to expand their own knowledge. As the great Zen master Shunryu Suzuki wrote, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.

• Readiness – Having a student mindset is not enough, however. You have to be ready to learn, often by unlearning old precepts or concepts that are no longer valid. Most people aren’t ready to accept new ways of looking at old problems. The first response is often, “I tried that and it doesn’t work.” The next reaction is, “Well maybe it might have a little to offer.” Later, they tell you, “It’s true and had already thought about it a long time ago!” Students who are ready lack the ‘not invented here’ attitude; instead they rapidly identify and incorporate new information and ideas.

• The teacher – Most of us think about teachers in a fairly formal sense – university professors, mentors, authors. Avid learners know that teachers come in every shape and form and often are disguised. Our clients are teachers, as are our partners, spouses, and families. The books and magazines we read are teachers, and so are our most difficult experiences. Both our best and worst competitors are teachers. Strangers you meet randomly, perhaps the person you sit down with on your next flight, may just turn out to be your next enlightening experience – who knows?

• Appearance – Ready students are constantly on the lookout for people and experiences they can learn from, and they know these teachers can appear at any time. Remember the movie Forrest Gump?

The knowledge acquisition, tactics and strategies of most top performers seem to be fundamentally different from those pursued by ‘experts,’ both in terms of what they learn and how they learn it. And if there’s one thing I’ve recognized – it’s that all the really great mentors and professionals I’ve ever met all roam far beyond their core expertise, are constantly absorbing new information in a variety of ways, and are open to multiple methods of learning. They also engage in deep, client-centered learning that enhances their ability to be insightful and add true value in the relationship.

Stay tuned for some additional thoughts on becoming more of an explorer in your learning next week.

Hope all is going your way!

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, so before you leave be sure to visit Von Löwen Designs to view an assortment of refreshing examples in kitchen and bath design concepts, refined palette and interior finishes, and sustainable yet chic, green remodeling ideas that may encourage and inspire your next remodel or home improvement project.