Privileged Insight


I first picked up that terminology – privileged insight – hanging around a guy who spent most of his time in the venture capital world.  It’s a fancy way of summing up what you’ve got in hand when you understand something about your work better and more intimately than anyone else.  To any enterprise – be it social or commercial – privileged insight represents a highly valued asset.  Continuously growing enterprise knowledge pays ever greater dividends with each investment an entrepreneur makes in learning.  Smart civic entrepreneurs advance both the action and the thought leadership aspects of their work.  This sometimes gives them a sharp edge in attracting the interest of over-subscribed philanthropic investors.  Yet, funding is not the only reason for surfacing for the greater good your group’s privileged insight asset, hence the following framework to aid discovery:       

What do we know better than anyone else?  Authentic leaders, advocates, activists and service providers hunger to understand the people and communities in which they work.  The more they deepen, voice, and invite challenges to what they think they understand, the more prepared they are to receive acceptance, if deserved, as thought leaders.  Richly informed thought leaders expertly wield the tools of factual knowledge, caring, and savvy about what already works.  When the time is right, they salt action with timely and original ideas.  They also know how to trust local knowledge and stay out of people’s way when help is unnecessary.  Possessing privileged insight means knowing when to act and when not to.  

What do we need to know more about?  Privileged insight means knowing what’s missing from the picture.  Thought leaders seeking such insight assume as a matter of course that they have gaps in their understanding.  They acquire a certain urgency to fill in what’s missing.  They engage in active exploration, finding every way possible to research and learn.  They take counsel and consider the observations of others, develop systems for capturing information, revel in finding the causes of consistent mistakes or glitches, and encourage people around them to share the same sort of enthusiasm.    

What do we tell others about what we know?  In the business world, privileged insight often gives a venture the proprietary edge.  Entrepreneurs guard what they know, sharing it strategically, perhaps with key investors as a means of raising capital.  In the public interest arena, where mission – not profit – is the motive, privileged insight rarely stays close to the vest for long.  It’s normal and ethical to assume that the wider the diffusion of insights and beneficial action, the greater the accrual to the common good.  Thought leaders with privileged insight about certain approaches that produce good tend to distinguish their efforts more by publicizing what they know than they do by protecting it.  They speak, write, train, and advocate.  They cajole, confront, and endlessly repeat themselves with the aim of convincing others to learn from, and adopt, what’s working.  Often, on the strength of relentless sharing, thought leaders in the civic arena complete a virtuous cycle of new insight – new knowing comes winging its way back home. 

 

Paul Vandeventer, President & CEO, Community Partners
October 2007