I have been in Human Resources for over ten years at this point. I thought I was an I-9 expert based on the numerous documents I had processed over the year. With my new job, I have learned there is a whole lot I did not know. Apparently my past jobs never worked with foriegn passports and the supporting documents that go with them. I’ve written before that learning never stops and how right that was.
This post is about knowing. I attended a training recently and it wasn’t about knowledge, but a section cover knowledge. My takeaways were: We all have knowledge, we cannot assume that we have all the knowledge even on one particular thing. We also cannot assume that because I have this level or knowledge that the person next to me possess that same level of knowledge. We can never assume that because we give someone the knowledge that they understand the same way we do.
What to do?
I had to be reminded that just because I knew all about I-9s at my past jobs, there were things they did not do that I had to learn. When we share information here, we have to try to share it in different ways to reach all of our audience and reinforce understanding, ever notice that we repeat some topics? We will continue to grow our knowledge, we will continue to share, we hope that with our knowledge comes understanding. This is not just with us, it is with you and when you pass on knowledge as well, rather it be in a class or training, talking to your kids, even talking to your significant other. Just because you give the knowledge does not mean they understand it the way you do; I’ve been in conversations where we think we are talking about the same thing, but are on two separate subjects which only confuses things more.