How would you react if everyone in your office was being taught a new procedure and you felt completely lost about how it worked?
Most people say they would hide their ignorance from their co-workers. This means that for most people, not letting anyone know they need help becomes more important than finding out what they need to know.
What is your true priority? Is it to cleverly trick your colleagues into believing you know everything? Or is it to learn what you need to know to do your job well?
Pat Flynn runs a small manufacturing plant in northern Virginia. Pat tries to teach his employees the difference between style and substance.
“If everybody cared about style and not substance, nothing would get done. Why, we would never have had a man walk on the moon. There’d just be three guys jammed in the doorway of the spaceship, all trying to get out ahead of the others to get his picture on tv.
“The day we accept style over substance,” Pat says, “is the day we stop making products that serve any purpose, that do any good. You want style over substance? Go do something that doesn’t matter.”
Researchers have found that a fascinating change takes place in schoolchildren. When they begin their studies, strong and weak students show an equal willingness to ask questions when they do not understand. However, as they get older and begin to understand their relative position in the class, students, especially weaker students, become reluctant to ask questions and reveal what they do not know.
Butler 1999