The Narcissism of Specialists

Why 'old hands' see tree obstacles where 'new blood' sees forest paths

There comes a time when you think you've walked every road.

Maybe you're from Philly, a lifelong native, and you can get anywhere without GPS. Or any other city, really, where you've been long enough to know every nook and neighborhood.

That same sense applies to strategic challenges. I couldn’t count the times someone on our staff in South Korea was described as an "old hand,"the term often used for an older guy that had been serving on the HQ staff for decades. (Note: They were all male, but, of course, the term could apply to females as well. I also differentiate here between an “old hand” and a “graybeard.” An old hand is typically staff and working-level, while a graybeard is often thought of as higher rank and at the decision-leadership-level.)

Zoom out from the Korean Peninsula and you'll find "old hands" everywhere, in business, sports, politics. And therein lies the problem.

Henry Kissinger comes to mind—in part due to his recent passing. When it came to geopolitics, he was somewhere in between an old hand and a graybeard.

On to the challenge, well laid out in this this story from former UK prime minister Tony Blair about his experiences in helping make peace in Northern Ireland and beyond:

"I hear this a lot when you see disputes around the world...you hear the same two things. You hear, 'First of all, no one understands this conflict like we do, and we understand the other side better than they understand [it] themselves.' Neither of which turns out to be true really.

And secondly that 'the other side is never going to change.' And your naivety in believing that they will, or that they will in some way accommodate us is just false and deluded."

I love that thought, as it does great work in characterizing the problem. Those who have the deepest experience with a challenge have one great chief asset: they know the problem best. But they equally possess an immense liability—despite focus and time, they do not have a solution. If they did they’d have solved it. (Acknowledging that there are some problems beyond solving, even in those instances, there has still not arisen an improvement in conditions sufficient to keep the pot’s lid from popping off.)

The problem with these old hands is that they've seen repeated attempts at solving the problem backfire and so often they shy away from proposed solutions. They "know" the limits, just as a New Yorker would tell you never to try to take a certain bridge or tunnel when there's traffic.

But landscapes do change over time, little by little, and slowly. It can be hard for the old hands to unlearn "old truths” that reflect new realities.

Gray is the key word here. The best approach. There is no black or white. Neither deep experience or complete ignorance is best. Not one or the other, but some blend of both. Old hands and new blood, specialist and generalist, together, one sharpens and strengthens the other, to use that tension in between to forge the best way forward.