Years ago, when I was a college dean, I clipped out an article by Susan Komives, “Inhabit the Gap.” I came across it in my annual file cleaning this week.
The article’s abstract says, “To…translate knowledge into action, we must examine the ways in which what we know may not always be congruent with what we do.” The article was a challenge to educators to model and teach behaviors that narrowed the gap between knowing something and doing it. She could easily have been talking about managing conflict successfully.
Komives distinguishes between “bridging” and “inhabiting” the gap, saying, “Filling that space may be the true strategy for achieving wisdom. Filling that space means engaging in the process of learning how to take knowledge and make it real—being able to use knowledge, critique it, and make it personal.”
As one who teaches and trains others to manage conflict better in the workplace and at home, I’m very aware of the gap between knowing and doing. My students and clients rarely struggle with the intellectual side of doing conflict better. It’s pulling off the doing of it that’s the real challenge.
I’m interested in your strategies for inhabiting the gap. Please leave comments and ideas!
Tammy,
One of the best ways I know to “inhabit the gap” is to share what I have read (and perhaps not yet assimilated) to others — a group that I meet with, my spouse, a daughter, or even an e-mail support group. And if the situation does not present itself, then I simply imagine that I am sharing the learning.
Because communication is involved, and I am loathe to say something of which I am not certain (I’m a lawyer by training — can you tell?), the process requires me to think through the new concepts and to anticipate questions that might not otherwise immediately come to mind.
Stephen Covey says in his book, The 8th Habit, “To know and not to do is really not to know.” Striving to inhabit the gap must become a knee-jerk reaction whenever new information is there for the taking.
Thanks for your reminder.
Sincerely,
Mary
Mary, I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. I definitely think you’re onto something with your idea that sharing new learning helps us inhabit the gap between knowing and doing. I remember a grad school professor telling me that you never quite learn something as well as when you have to teach it or explain it to others. Thanks for reminding us all that the sharing of what we learn increases our own ability to synthesize it—not to mention that we help spread important information to others! Best to you.