Breaking the Experience Myth: How Real Expertise Develops at Work
In the interest of providing multiple means of engaging with this blog, below is the podcast style conversation, using our AI friends Johnny and Joanne who go into each blog post at a deeper level. Or below is the usual written format which is a little more TL;DR
I recently worked with two leaders facing market disruption. The first had 25 years of experience but had only ever led in stable market conditions - his business struggled to adapt when an aggressive competitor entered their space. The second leader, despite just 7 years at the helm, thrived during the upheaval. She had deliberately sought out volatile markets and diverse challenges throughout her career. The difference wasn't time served - it was the quality of their experience.
This contrast crystallised while reading Rousseau and Stouten's brilliant paper "Experts and Expertise in Organizations." Their research reveals something many of us intuitively know but rarely act upon: expertise and experience are not the same thing.
Many leaders and HR practitioners face a common challenge - identifying and developing true expertise in their organisations. We often default to using years of experience as a proxy for expertise. But is that 10-year veteran really an expert, or have they just repeated the same year of experience ten times over?.
The Experience Fallacy
“The state of knowledge on expertise in organizations is further undermined by the tendency of both organizational scholars and practitioners to conflate expertise with years of experience….overlooking the nature or quality of that experience or the learning opportunities it provides”
The Science Behind Expertise
Let's start with what expertise actually is. True expertise isn't just accumulated time in a role - it's the the ability to attune to vital information in the performance environment and couple that with behaviour/actions that solve the problem :
Quickly attune to patterns in complex situations
Focus on the most relevant information while filtering out noise
Make more accurate judgments and decisions
Adapt their knowledge to novel situations
The Experience Trap
Here's where many organisations go wrong - they assume years of experience automatically translate to expertise. The research shows this relationship is far more complex. Experience only builds expertise under specific conditions:
Regular opportunities for meaningful practice
Clear and accurate feedback on performance
Exposure to varied challenges and situations
Time dedicated to deliberate learning and reflection
Without these conditions, someone can accumulate years of experience without developing true expertise. Think of it like playing tennis - just hitting balls without proper coaching and structured practice won't make you an expert player.
Building Expertise in Organisations
So what does this mean for developing expertise in your organisation? The research suggests several key principles:
1. Focus on Quality Over Time
Don't just track years of experience. Look at the variety and quality of someone's experience, their opportunities for learning, and their demonstrated ability to solve novel problems.
2. Create Learning-Rich Environments
Expertise development requires:
Regular feedback and coaching
Opportunities to tackle progressively challenging work
Time for reflection and learning from experience
Exposure to varied problems and situations
3. Support Deliberate Practice
Help people identify specific skills to develop and create structured opportunities to practice those skills with feedback. This is very different from just doing the job.
4. Recognise True Expertise
Be careful about conflating confidence with expertise. The most confident person isn't necessarily the most expert. Look for people who:
Can clearly explain their thinking
Acknowledge uncertainty when appropriate
Seek out different perspectives
Learn and adapt from experience
Practical Steps for HR and Leaders
How can you put this research into practice? Start by examining how your organisation:
Evaluates expertise in hiring and promotion decisions
Creates opportunities for meaningful practice and learning
Provides feedback and coaching
Recognises and rewards genuine expertise development
The path to expertise is more complex than simply accumulating years of experience. But by understanding how expertise really develops, organisations can better identify, develop, and leverage true expertise.
Remember: An expert isn't made by years alone, but by years well spent in deliberate learning and development. The question isn't just "How long have they been doing it?" but "How have they been doing it?"
What changes could you make to better develop real expertise in your organisation?