Dahlia Season Consulting

From knowing to doing to doing well. The leaps are massive, with giant chasms between. 

As a child learning the oboe I started with finger positions, reed care, embouchure, breath, and finally I could play a scale.

And then the most simple tune, something baroque because, well, the oboe. 

I practiced for years, always, for hours, again and again, the same notes differently played.

But to do well, really well, well enough to become a studio musician in Los Angeles, I never got there. My teacher knew I could. Encouraged me, saw the possibility. 

But I left LA before it happened. My life took a turn, and that skill was left behind.

I knew how to play the oboe. I could do it at a middling level. I could not do it well. After 7 years of practice.

I’m flummoxed by this culture we live in now, where people believe you can take an online class, maybe 2 to 4 hours of instruction, or a few days at most, and then will be able to do something well at the end of it. 

At most, you will have awareness of the subject. You may have a detailed list of all that you don’t know, can’t yet do, or want to try. You may have the ability to visualize a path to doing. You may know your next few steps.

But the skills and wisdom required to be a great leader, a great agile coach, a great product manager, a great scrum master, a great engineer, that level of excellence takes years of practice, years of learning through failure, years of experiencing and reflecting.

Knowing something isn’t doing, and doing isn’t doing well. Excellence is earned. If it’s worth doing, it’s likely not easy.