How vs. Why

Here is an interesting parallel between the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom pyramid and the knowledge worker roles and responsibilities defined by Peter Drucker.  Depending on what you read, there exists a tendency to refer to Knowledge as “doing things right”, which happens to fit Drucker’s classic definition of “efficiency”.  On the same token, there’s also a tendency to see Wisdom as “doing the right things”, which also neatly fits Drucker’s definition of “effectiveness”.

Figure 1: DIKW Pyramid

So from Drucker we know that management represents efficiency, leadership represents effectiveness, executives need to be leaders, and all knowledge workers need to think and act like executives.

This leaves us with a curious relationship between [Knowledge, Management, Efficiency]  vs. [Wisdom, Leadership, Effectiveness]. Description is at the heart of the former, which defined work in the 20th century.  Prediction, on the other hand, is at the heart of the latter, and it will define work in this 21st century.

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