Experience vs Change

As President-elect Barack Obama begins the complex task of building his administration, early naysayers are already disappointed by his decision to surround himself with experienced Washington insiders like Joe Biden and Rahm Emanuel.

The belief that experienced people are incapable of creative and innovative thinking is simply wrong. Being an "outsider," inexperienced in the workings of the political process does not make you a better candidate for a job. It just makes you a candidate who does not have a certain kind of experience in a field.

While career changers can and often do bring unique ideas with them into their new careers, it doesn't really seem wise to fill all of your top level positions with career changers. You need to have some seasoned veterans on your team who understand how things have been done in the past - what has worked and what has failed - and how things might be done differently in the future. Experience does matter and a smart leader knows how to tap into the experience of other people.

One measure of a great leader is to know what you don't know and, by extension, build a team of people who have strong experience in areas where you are vulnerable. Hence Obama's choice of a running mate who has far more extensive experience in the area of foreign policy.

Ironically, people who believe that experience, by definition, makes you rigid and cynical are themselves rigid and cynical. It's what you do with the experience that you have that matters most. For those who know how to learn the lessons of their own history, experience is a great teacher.

There are an enormous amount of armchair critics in the world who are eager to second-guess every move President-elect Obama makes. I would like to offer a cautionary note to all of those would be naysayers. Americans have voted to place their trust in this man. Please give him a chance to prove himself. As inexperienced outsiders, a lot of us have no idea what a new leader needs to do to build a successful administration. Rather than assuming that we are smarter than him, let's all reserve judgement and perhaps even learn from his example.