"My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions."
In a number of different ways, great business leaders have said something similar to Drucker's above comment.
Sometimes it's mentioned as being objective, acting like you're not in the business, or even as if it's your first day on the job.
The reason it's so important to be ignorant is because too much experience or knowledge can keep you from asking the types of questions that will give you the right answers. If we assume we know the right questions, we will only get the answers those questions ask.
But if we operate like we're ignorant, we'll then have the ability to ask simple questions that will bring us the right answers.
This is one reason why experience can be overrated, as far as it relates to practice or knowledge. (Experience that develops qualities in a person is different ... like patience, endurance, etc.)
Many times we need to be our own consultants, the trick is to get outside our business and look at it as if, like Drucker, you're a consultant. Then we'll be in the place to ask the right questions.
Other Peter Drucker Resources:
The Man Who Invented Management
Beyond the Information Revolution
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