Skip to main content

The Gift of Empowerment: An Investment That Never Stops Giving


You know how it feels to get that perfect gift - the one that made you smile when you first opened it and every time you use it?

Now, imagine a gift that actually grows more valuable over time. That's what happens when you give someone the gift of empowerment through knowledge.

Sure, a lifetime supply of anything sounds terrific (who wouldn't want endless coffee or chocolate?), but eventually, even "lifetime" supplies run out. Subscriptions expire. Memberships lapse. But when you teach someone how to understand and solve problems on their own? That's the gift that keeps on multiplying.

Here's the thing about empowerment - it's not just about showing someone how to do something. It's about helping them understand the whole picture. Think of it like this: instead of just teaching someone the steps of a recipe, you're helping them understand why certain ingredients work together, how flavors complement each other and what makes a dish truly special. Once they get that, they can create their own recipes and even teach others.

In the tech world, this is revolutionary. Too often, companies treat knowledge like a secret sauce, keeping clients dependent and in the dark. But real empowerment means being open and sharing everything - not just the "what" but the "why" and "how." It's about creating comfortable stopping points along the way, like base camps on a mountain climb, where people can catch their breath, look back at how far they've come and plan their next move up.

The coolest part? When you empower someone, they usually turn around and empower others. It's like starting a chain reaction of capability and confidence. That initial gift of knowledge keeps growing and spreading, creating this incredible network of people who can solve problems and help others do the same.

Sure, it means changing how we think about knowledge - not as something to guard like a dragon with its treasure, but as something that becomes more valuable the more it's shared. We're not here to be permanent solution-keepers but guides helping others find their way.

So, next time you think about giving, consider how you could give someone the tools to grow and learn. Because while solving someone's problem today feels good, enabling them to solve it on their own tomorrow feels even better.

Now that's a gift that truly keeps on giving!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Overlooked Challenge of Knowledge Debt in IT

Information technology departments often focus conversations around “technology debt” on the need to regularly replace and update hardware and software infrastructure. However, there is another crucially important, yet often overlooked, component of technology debt – knowledge debt. Knowledge debt refers to the gap between individual knowledge and organizational knowledge about how technology systems are configured, deployed, and managed within a specific environment. When new technologies are implemented, typically individual contributors take responsibility for deployment based on their personal expertise. Over time though, those individuals’ undocumented understandings and insights into the how technology works becomes "knowledge debt" if they are not effectively converted into organizational knowledge. This knowledge debt poses huge risks as refresh projects and personnel changes occur. If individual knowledge has not been mapped to organizational systems and processes,...

The Curse of Skill Obsolescence

As IT leaders, we are constantly facing the challenge of keeping our teams' skills relevant in a field that evolves at lightning speed. With new technologies entering the marketplace daily, it's easy for hard-won knowledge to suddenly become obsolete. This skill obsolescence puts us in a difficult position - should we retrain existing staff or attempt to bring in new talent who may be more familiar with the latest trends? Neither option is easy or guaranteed to succeed. I believe the root of this problem lies not with the pace of technological change, but with how we approach learning and development. Too often, our training focuses narrowly on specific tasks and tools rather than broader concepts. For example, we teach employees how to configure and maintain legacy telephony systems without giving them a deeper grounding in networks, protocols, audio encoding, and the like. So when a new technology like VoIP comes along, they lack the context and adaptability to smoothly tran...