When Experience Becomes Assumption

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Fair enough. But apparently it can be biked in one.

I recently completed a virtual bike ride through Rome in a single day. It was a ridiculous little achievement, but it also made me think about how easily familiar sayings become accepted truths.

Experience gives us useful shortcuts. We learn what usually works, what usually doesn’t, and which mistakes we would prefer not to repeat. That’s valuable. But experience can also leave us carrying assumptions long after the circumstances that created them have changed.

“We’ve always done it this way.”

“That won’t work here.”

“We don’t have the resources.”

Sometimes those statements reflect hard-earned wisdom. Other times, they’re old conclusions that no longer fit because times have changed, leaders change their minds, and people learn new skills to meet new realities.

One of the things I’ve learned at work and at home is to occasionally ask: “Which of my assumptions are based on experience, and which are just habit?”

Experience should make us wiser. It should also remind us to be flexible.

And for the record, Rome was built over approximately 900 years. I couldn’t resist checking.

#Leadership #LearningAndDevelopment #ContinuousLearning #GrowthMindset #ChallengeAssumptions