Capability vs. Experience: Does Age Matter?

There's a good list of "lessons learned" over on the Symbolics blog here:
http://symbolics.com/birthday-i-turn-30-today-30-lessons-ive-learned-in-life-and-business/

However, for today's "daily rubbish" post, I'm not discussing any of these lessons learned. Instead, I've actually picked up on something in one of the comments below the post: "You have wisdom way beyond your years..."

What's more valuable: capability or experience?

I've been fortunate enough to work for people who have given me the chance to stretch myself and work in positions far beyond those that would normally be expected of someone at those points in my career. For example, within two years of graduating I worked in a "Global Head of" position for a specialist UK-based consultancy.

These "sink or swim" scenarios are always risky, but with the right support and guidance I've always swam.

Many people who are just as capable may never get these opportunities because they "don't have the experience". It takes a good manager to have the courage to create these opportunities for people and to manage them through the roles, providing them with enough rope to hang themselves but always having a chair at the ready to stabilise them.

Experience is still key

You can't beat experience for learning lessons. No matter how capable you are, if you have zero experience, you're going to struggle. We base our actions based on reference points from past experiences, and without those reference points we will struggle.

However, the value of experience is in its application. If you don't actually apply the lessons you've learned - by repeating successes and avoiding repeated failures - your experience is worthless. This is why there are many people who are very experienced but still don't make any headway.

Likewise, the value of experience without capability is far lower than capability with limited experience. If you've experienced lots of things but can't do anything new or better based on those things, what value is that experience?

Conversely, if you are highly capable but have little experience, the contributions you can provide will be valuable, and the value you can provide will increase all the time because with everything you do, you will gain experience.

Some experience can be learned

There are many mistakes I have avoided, and many times I have been able to make sound decisions and talk authoritatively about what should be done, not through first-hand experience, but though things I have learned.

The key sources of learning are:

• More experienced people - especially more experienced people telling stories. Some people find it irritating when people keep recounting things they've done in the past. I recommend you listen before criticising, you might pick something up!
• Reading! - books, blogs, magazines, project reports... whatever works for you. Reading about other people's approaches, both academic methodologies and "real" case studies, is a great way to find out about how others have approached the same challenges that you are currently facing, the pitfalls to avoid and key things to do to succeed.
• Other people's mistakes - which can be picked up both through the above two sources, and from encountering them first-hand. It's far better to learn through other's mistakes than your own, and through reading you can pick up far more lessons than you would be able to through your own experience (because experiencing things takes time and opportunity!)
• Your own experiences - this is an obvious one, but it's still one of the most important. The above are all ways to fast-track learning, but your own experiences will stay with you and can be far more effective than the others. It may be more painful, but if you make a mistake, you're far more likely to remember to avoid it in the future (especially if it was particularly painful to resolve).

The key thing with all the above though, is to listen and think about how to apply the lessons you pick up.

With your own experiences in particular, it is important to recognise if you have made a mistake and address it rather than pretending it wasn't your fault - because you will risk repeating it, which is never a good thing to do.

Meritocracy hypocricy

The real challenge to all of this is when it's applied to real work environments.

There is a common perception that experience brings wisdom and greater capability - and the reality is that that generalisation is often right.

The problem is how to deal with when the perception is wrong.

Some companies like to think that they run a meritocracy (promotion through merit and achievement rather than time in post), but when people are involved in the review process emotions get involved and this often cannot occur.

The thing that really gets to me is when someone who has been promoted quickly due to their achievements ("fast-tracked"), doesn't share the same views as those who got them there and holds back others from the same opportunities. I've experienced this a few times over the years (fortunately only affecting me once), and I can see how frustrating it is for the individual.

Of course, the other side to this is where ambition clouds someone's judgement, making them think they should be promoted and thinking that they are looking at it "objectively", when in fact they are not.

In my case, I got around this a couple of times by accepting a more senior position early without the associated promotion/pay-rise/bonus/etc, proving I could do the job well then getting promoted off the back of the clear and irrefutable success. It's sometimes difficult to do this, performing a job where you know you should be paid a lot more than you are being paid, but the patience can pay off and result in a much more rapid progression as a result.

It's a tricky one

Ultimately, the whole thing comes down to human being striving to achieve and the difficulties that management face in taking risks and providing opportunities without over-exposing themselves, and the constant balance people need to strike in trying to fulfil their ambitions without becoming overly arrogant or over-stretching themselves.

The key thing that has always kept me going is keeping a focus on doing the best job in the most interesting and challenging roles I can (and if I'm given a dull role looking for ways to create opportunities, make it more interesting to drive more value, or doing extra stuff around the sides), and also keeping a focus on learning and developing rather than on the next promotion.

By focussing on how to help and drive benefit and success, you're far more likely to achieve the associated financial and status benefits than if you focus on the promotion and do everything cynically out of a desire to progress your career.