Leading on demand business-Executives as architects

I just read an article from the IBM systems Journal (Vol. 42, N°3, 2003) an article from S.H. Haeckel about the similarities between business executives and architects.

The first remark I had is about the opposition between the know-how and the know-why.

"[...] I don't just want to know what everybody has to do; I want to know why. When you know why, you know more...You play faster".

This exceptional athlete [the quote is from Marshall Faulk, a US football player] was not talking about his know-how. He was talking about know-why. Know-how is procedural knowledge, which is action centered and based on practice, and Faulk has a super abundance of it. But it is know-why that distinguishes him from other talented athletes, enabling him to better anticipate what will happen next. He does this not by projecting historical trends, but by deriving meaning in real time from what is happening now. This meaning comes from an understanding of the context within which action takes place, rather than from an understanding of how to perform action."

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