It is my view that human beings are primarily controlled by their thoughts and beliefs. Given that, it is important to make distinctions among three important cognitive processes, intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom. The concept of intelligence has been the subject of a great deal of debate. Much of the debate centers around the idea as to whether intelligence is controlled by inherited factors (genetics) or whether it is created through experience. No matter what is true, people vary in their ability to learn. Anyone who has taught at any grade level can attest to this fact. People vary in intelligence along a continuum and one can rank order people in terms of their ability to learn. Knowledge is the accumulation of information and results from experience. That experience can be in a formal setting (school) or from life experience. It is probably true that the more intelligent a person is, the more knowledge they can acquire from their experiences. People who are lower in intelligence can still learn and acquire knowledge but not at the same level as those who are high in intelligence. The lack of knowledge is called ignorance. We are ignorant about something, and I like to think of life as a continual opportunity to reduce one’s ignorance. Higher Education has embraced the concept of life-long learning. Higher Education sets as one its goals is to have their students become life-long learners. People in all fields and professions can be life-long learners if they are willing to keep themselves open to learning new information and developing new skills. Some people have turned themselves off to acquiring new knowledge and acquiring new skills and simply want to use the knowledge and skills they have acquired even though their knowledge and skills no longer provide them with the tools to be productive.
Wisdom is the ability to know what to do and when to do. It is the quality to know how to get things done. Philosophers distinguish between two types of wisdom, theoretical wisdom and practical wisdom. Theoretical wisdom refers to higher level functions such as ethics and moral issues. Practical wisdom refers to practical applications such as mechanical problems and the ability to create a plan to solve practical problems. The opposite of wisdom is foolishness. Foolishness refers to the lack of insight as to what to do in moral, ethical, or practical situations. Wisdom is the ability to be able to predict the consequences of one’s choices and to make choices based on those predicted consequences. Understanding how to weigh the possible outcomes of one’s choice is a function of wisdom and essential for good decision making. Wisdom is something you should look for in anyone who you want to be a member of your team. It often perplexes people when they see a highly intelligent and knowledgeable person acting in a foolish manner. It is probably true that one needs a certain level of intelligence and knowledge to be wise, but there are intelligent, knowledgeable, and foolish people in every walk of life. Wisdom should be highly prized and is essential for anyone to be a successful administrator and one should choose those people as team members. Humans vary in their intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom. It is best to pick team members based on high levels of each of these characteristics although wisdom is most important.