"Knowledge does not eliminate skill"
"Knowledge without skill is unproductive."
by Dr. Peter Drucker
At present, the term "knowledge worker" is widely used to describe people with
considerable theoretical knowledge and learning: doctors, lawyers,
teachers, accountants, chemical engineers. But, the most striking growth
will be in "knowledge technologists": computer technicians, software
designers, analysts in clinical labs, manufacturing technologists,
paralegals. These people are as much manual workers as they are
knowledge workers; in fact, they usually spend far more time working
with their hands than with their brains.
So, knowledge does not eliminate skill. On the contrary, knowledge is fast becoming the foundation for skill. We are using knowledge more and more to enable
people to acquire skills of a very advanced kind fast and successfully.
Only when knowledge is used as a foundation for skill does it become
productive. For example, surgeons preparing for an operation to correct a
brain aneursym before it produces a lethal brain hemorrhage spend hours
in diagnosis before they cut – and that requires specialized knowledge
of the highest order. The surgery itself, however, is manual work – and
manual work consisting of repetitive manual operations in which the
emphasis is on speed, accuracy, uniformity. And these operations are
studied, organized, learned, and practiced exactly like any other manual
work.
The Age of Discontinuity.
Management Challenges for The 21st Century.
Managing in the Next Society.
