Education and Experience

Earlier this year I made the amazing discovery of iTunes U. I was at a conference where everyone went to bed really early (!) and while browsing the iTunes store came across free lectures from the top universities in the world... Few others can say they trained at Harvard, Stanford and Oxford all in one evening.

I was looking for some seminars on leadership or business processes and came across a series of video interviews carried out by McGill University in Canada. One interview was with Larry Smith, president of Canadian Football League team Montreal Alouettes. He talked about the balance between education and experience...

Imagine a bike's wheels, one wheel represents education and the other experience. The smoothest, safest and fastest ride comes when the wheels are matched in size - unlike the rather ridiculous looking (although groundbreaking at the time) penny farthing pictured above. The penny farthing's shape meant it had such an odd centre of gravity that anyone breaking on a downhill descent were more than likely to end up flying over the handlebars.

Most pastors, or leaders, or anyone doing any job in fact, get regular experience in their job - whether it's leading a church every day, the office team leader or the chef in their kitchen. Each day that experience wheel grows larger and larger. Which makes me think... I can't halt the growth process of my experience wheel without quitting my job so I better get working on my education. Everything I read, listen to or invest in adds to making that balance a touch more even - and makes me a lot less likely to fly over the handlebars!