Moving up the wisdom hierarchy // Creating Passionate Users

One of the writers from the “Heads First” series of books has an interesting post that the fundamental flaw with most technical documentation is that it focuses on the “What” instead of the higher levels of thinking.

The Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy explained

Wisdom (systems thinking)	If and When
Understanding (grokking)	Why
Knowledge (useful patterns)	How
Information (organized data)	What
Data

Some key things to add to move yourself up the hierarchy:

• When NOT to use something
• Consequences
• How to recognize when it was NOT a good idea to use or apply this [whatever]
• Lessons learned from others, real case studies good AND bad
• Links/referrals to communities of practice
• Simulations (best of all–provide the tools and scenarios that let them discover what the long-term consequences could be)

Creating Passionate Users: Moving up the wisdom hierarchy