Getting smart about the hierarchy of smart
Don't talk to all your employees, all your users or all your prospects the same way, because they're not the same.
The Dreyfus model of skill acquisition posits that there are five stages people go through:
1. Novice
–wants to be given a manual, told what to do, with no decisions possible
2. Advanced beginner
–needs a bit of freedom, but is unable to quickly describe a hierarchy of which parts are more important than others
3. Competent
–wants the ability to make plans, create routines and choose among activities
4. Proficient
–the more freedom you offer, the more you expect, the more you'll get
5. Expert
–writes the manual, doesn't follow it.
If you treat an expert like a novice, you'll fail.
Phi Beta Iota: The observe is also true–if you treat a novice like an expert, assuming wrongfully that their having access to secrets or internal data makes them expert in any way, then you will fail and fail in very expensive ways.