It used to be that there were only two things that existed, things that we knew and things that we didn’t know. Flash forward to 2011, Content & Technology have obviously changed us personally and professionally in many ways. It has also changed our levels of Awareness and the need to understand them.

I’m talking about the “Content” (blog posts/video/images/etc) that is mainly available from the web, of course via many different types of Technology or devices. You know the things we love personally, sports, celebrity gossip, right up to the Knowledge we need to foster at work to remain competitive like SEO, Cloud Computing, Social Media, etc.
I’m referring to the explosion of information that is the continued result of Change. And because Change has occurred in every part of our Businesses and Organizations, we seem to have developed special filters to limit the Content that Change has created to a manageable level.

We as Human Beings like to operate from a place of comfort and familiarity. It is easy to focus on what we know and to ask questions about things we are familiar with.  However, What about those areas that we don’t even know exist?

How do we Know what we don’t Know?

Let’s break down Today’s Awareness Levels, from a Business Perspective:

Things that I Know – This is where we all live. Most of us specialize, study, train to become experts in our fields. And we continue to hone, evolve and diversify those skills as we grow our companies. I personally know quite a bit about Managed Print Services and Document Management, because there are a lot of Options and a lot of Content that I am a continual student of.

This is the platform we use to power our Organizations. While it is a very important part of the mix, it is important to focus on the other areas of Awareness to manage the change and evolution. While we have plenty of Options, there is a large risk of complacency. These are not times for Businesses to become complacent.

Things I Don’t Know that I Know – This is the creativity and brilliance in all of us that is creating the Change and the need to manage the ever growing Content. This is to say that we learn, evolve, create, share, sell and explore all of our Options. And most of us earn our living, grow our businesses or advance our Cause as part of this process.

Things that I Know that I don’t Know – This also provides us with Plenty of Options. I basically know what Posi-Traction is (or was), but I don’t know how it works, its methodology or technology. However if I needed it, I could research and study it to achieve my goals.

Because I know that I don’t know about a subject gives me the options to hire, outsource, educate or otherwise take action.

Things I Don’t Know that I Don’t Know – This is the Biggest Opportunity for Companies or Initiatives to experience success, growth, savings or whatever is important to them, yet it is the most elusive.

In fact, it is this Level of Awareness that costs us all Time, Money, Stress, etc. the moment it becomes One of the other Things. That’s right, once this Level of Awareness changes, it affects us more often than not in a negative way.

Is this also our Greatest Opportunity to Significantly Impact our Businesses? How do we turn this Process of our Awareness Changing into a Positive Experience? One where growth, profit or whatever we use to measure our success is the result? Please let me know your thoughts.