Learn to Teach. And Teach, to learn

“Never be tired of learning or teaching others.” Confucius

In the recent IBM event, Dr. Jeffrey Burns, Chief of Critical Care Medicine at the Boston Children's Hospital, describes the proliferation of Life Saving medical knowledge with pediatric caregivers around the world, via a project called Open Pediatrics. Open Pediatrics, in simple terms, is an (Open, Free) Platform that effectively aggregates knowledge, expertise and best practices from international subject matter experts (i.e. Pediatricians and related care giving professionals) and shares learning modules methods and practices around the critical care of children -- making information available across 900 hospitals located across 127 countries through collaborative capabilities in a common platform. Dr. Burns shares a touching story of a senior pediatric doctor from Tierra del Fuego, located at the tip of South America coming to him in a conference, and speaking to him anxiously through an interpreter. The pediatrician points Dr. Burns to his location in a map and tells Dr. Burns “This is me… I am the Senior Pediatric doctor at Tierre De Fuego and….before Open Pediatrics..…I would go to bed many nights, worried that I didn't do the best that I could have done, because I had no other senior colleague to turn to… and since Open Pediatrics I now feel that I am connected to the world, and that I sleep very well…."

While our own professions may not revolve around such life-saving situations, we do have the ability and responsibility to share knowhow. In our everyday work, we spend a large portion of our time individually and collectively solving problems, developing capabilities, creating solutions, providing services etc. As we evolve in our professional lives, we build knowledge and experience - be it in competencies, technology or methods. Perhaps you do this today, concsiously or unconsciously, but consider Sharing this Expertise. Carve out a portion of your time for sharing knowledge and insights with others. Perhaps over a 1:1 with a junior colleague, an internal technical talk with a group, a planned web event with a larger audience, a blog, a whitepaper, or via one of your company's formal learning channels.

 “When you get, give. When you learn, teach” Maya Angelou.

One of the things I personally find most rewarding at work is the ability to connect with other professionals, to share knowledge and experience toward building our joint knowledge, proficiency and impact. The learning, understanding and fulfillment that results from teaching is indescribably positive. In the movie "Pay it forward", the protoagonist, a young student conceives the notion of paying a favour not back, but forward – i.e. repaying good deeds not with a "payback," but rather paying it forward (in the movie, to three new people..). The concept is relatively simple; share your knowledge and expertise – much like a candle to light the way for others.