Expert Advice

January 25 2021
By: Terry L. Mathis

In my corporate career I was the Director of Training for a large corporation. I would regularly come across new ideas and processes from my reading or conferences that I thought would benefit my organization. If my boss liked the idea, his next question was always, "Can we do this ourselves or do we need outside help?" Even though our training department had significant resources it often made sense to get expert help. That help could vary from simple advice to whole design and implementation. Sometimes, even though we could have designed and delivered a training program ourselves, we thought it wiser to get help. When our people were already maxed out or when new ideas needed to be implemented quickly, outside help facilitated our needs.

Profound wisdom in your own safety efforts largely consists of a deep understanding of this principle: Do-it-yourself (DIY) vs. expert advice. Even experts get help from other experts so they can concentrate on their core competencies and not spend time and resources learning something that won't make them money and is cheaper to buy from someone who already knows it.