During a recent appearance, noted author and thought leader Malcolm Gladwell commented that “the disease of the novice is incompetence” and “the disease of the expert is overconfidence.” He went on to express his view that the disease of the expert is of greater concern, explaining that typically, we don’t care much when novices make mistakes, because they’re not responsible for anything important. By contrast, if an expert makes a mistake, there can be significant consequences. Hmm.
If experts tend to be overconfident, how likely is it that, left to their own devices, they will be able to identify, and will choose to participate in, precisely the training and learning experiences needed to maintain their competence (no matter how well intentioned they may be)? Perhaps the completion of a self-assessment tool should be the first step in the recertification process. Maybe this would serve as a “wake-up call” to certificants, motivating them to become more engaged in their ongoing occupational/professional development.
Mr. Gladwell also expressed the wish that there were an infrastructure in place which required experts to periodically evaluate their competence, to see if they do indeed measure up to their own high perceptions of themselves. “That’s what recertification does,” you may say. Not quite. Industry data suggest that a substantial proportion of certifiers have no mechanism within their recertification process to evaluate certificants’ knowledge and skills. Oops!
And here’s one last quote from Mr. Gladwell: “Being an expert is a gift you have to earn every day.” Do our recertification processes truly ensure that our certificants continue to earn the right every day to call themselves “certified”?
Re-Thinking, Re-Imagining, and Re-Defining the Business of Certification
