Page 3 - September 2022 Track N Times

FEATURE STORY

The Curse of Knowledge

By Chris Dykhoff, Manager Ballast and Grade

One of the major challenges in Loram’s operations is the need we have for our leaders to be perpetual trainers.
We have felt this demand especially in the past couple of years as economic and labor conditions have meant lots
of changes to our crews. Training others is a challenging skill set that doesn’t come naturally, and crafting messages
that stick for a listener can be especially challenging. Effective message techniques are often some combination of
communication that is Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories (“SUCCES”).

One of the major obstacles to communicating effectively is overcoming “The Curse of Knowledge”.

“The Curse of Knowledge” is a phenomenon in which once we have knowledge, we find ourselves unable to put
ourselves in the place of someone who doesn’t have that knowledge. We forget what it’s like not to know what we
know.

The Curse of Knowledge can be illustrated by trying out the ‘tapping game.’ You can try this with your team. Think
of a song. Your task is to tap out the song on the table so that someone else can guess it. Tappers will usually think
they can do a great job conveying the song, and that their teammate will probably be able to guess it. In their heads,
they can hear the rhythm, melody, words, and all the parts that make up the song. The guesser, however, has none
of that information or context, and will rarely be able to guess the song being tapped based on the tapper's rhythm
alone. Or think of how hard it is to give verbal driving directions to someone who has no familiarity with a town,
versus a person who knows key landmarks, even if they don’t know the exact destination.

We face this same challenge when instructing someone out on our machines. I once contacted a technician to note
that we were having trouble and might need some assistance. I received a pretty frustrating response: "It's not that
complicated! You just have to follow the wires!" He might have been right, but I didn't have the technical training,
years of experience, or familiarity troubleshooting that kind of system. This individual was suffering from the Curse
of Knowledge.

The Curse of Knowledge can be extremely frustrating for both the instructor and the recipient. The instructor, say

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