“I keep learning, but I never seem to get any smarter.” That’s a common concern that plagues the business world. Companies foot the bill to send their employees to a variety of training sessions each year. Individuals sign up for seminars designed to help them learn new skills and maximize their potential in both the business and personal arenas. We read books, listen to CDs and watch videos –– all in a quest to acquire new knowledge. Yet, many of us cannot seem to retain and implement all of this newly acquired knowledge in any significant way. Enter best-selling author Ken Blanchard, Success Motivation Institute founder Paul J Meyer and motivational speaker Dick Ruhe. Together, these authors explore the “missing link” between the knowledge we acquire and our daily actions in Know Can Do!: Put Your Know-How Into Action. In it, they offer a deceptively simple, yet highly effective remedy for closing what they call the “knowing-doing gap,” so that all of those seminars you attend, books you read and videos you watch won’t end up as one more vague listing on your resume or take up space on your bookshelf. According to the authors, “We think Know Can Do! can make a real difference by giving people simple tools to close the knowing-doing gap and make their knowledge come alive.

1. Key Impressionistic takes from the book
Ken Blanchard’s ( Paul J.Meyer & Dick Ruhe)
“Know can do ”
Closing the learning – doing gap
by Ramakrishnan ( Ramki)
ramaddster@gmail.com

2. About the Authors
KEN BLANCHARD is Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard
Companies®. He is the author or co-author of more than forty books,
including the classic The One Minute Manager® (with Spencer
Johnson), Full Steam Ahead! (with Jesse Stoner), and The Secret
(with Mark Miller). He is also associated with the Ken Blanchard
College of Business at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona
PAUL J. MEYER is the founder of Success Motivation Institute, Inc.
He is the author of numerous books, including The Five Pillars of
Leadership, I Inherited a Fortune, and Chicken Soup for the Golden
Soul
DICK RUHE is a senior consulting partner for The Ken Blanchard
Companies, and a world-renowned keynote speaker. He is the
author of the training program Total Quality Leadership.

3. Prelude
Attempting to better themselves—learn new skills, break bad habits, realize their potential—
people read books, attend seminars, take training courses. And companies pitch in too,
spending billions of dollars every year on professional development programs aimed at helping
their employees become more effective. But in spite of what people sincerely believe are their
best efforts, all too often their behaviour doesn’t change. The fact that it seems to be so hard to
make new learning stick is an endless source of frustration for both individuals and
organizations.
For years Ken Blanchard has been troubled by the gap between what people know—all the
good advice they’ve digested intellectually—and what they actually do. In Know Can Do!: Put
Your Know-How into Action, he and his co-authors, Paul J. Meyer and Dick Ruhe, use the
fable format Blanchard made famous to lay out a straightforward method for learning more,
learning better, and making sure you actually use what you learn.
This engaging story identifies three key reasons people don’t make the leap from knowing to
doing and then moves on to the solution. It teaches you how to avoid information overload by
learning “less more, not more less.” You’ll find out how to adjust your brain’s filtering system
to learn many, many times more than ever before, ignite your creativity and resourcefulness with
Green Light Thinking, master what you’ve learned using spaced repetition, and more.
At last, an answer to the question, “Why don’t I do what I know I should do?” Read this book
and you will!

4. The Missing Link
Knowledge is power –but only if you use it
 All of us have a common Concern - “I keep learning, but I
never seem to get any smarter.
 We attend variety of training sessions each year !
 Individuals sign up for seminars designed to help them learn
new skills & maximize their potential in both the business
and personal arenas.
 We read books, listen to CDs and watch videos –– all in a
quest to acquire new knowledge.
 Yet, many of us cannot seem to retain and implement all of
this newly acquired knowledge in any significant way.
Why ?- knowing doing gap

5. “ A bunch of folks dress casual, go to an off-site meeting for two or three days,
beat themselves to death filling up flip charts and then go back to business as
usual “
By John Rock –General Motors
The Missing Link

6. 3 reasons why people don’t use what they learn
 Negative filtering
 Insufficient practice

7. Information overload

8.  Overwhelmed by the amount of information
 Don’t understand the available information
 Don’t have time to analyze the information &
understand
Information overload
We only retain small
fraction of what we hear
or read only once.
Information overload
frosts &
Leads to immobilization

9. The cure for Information overload
Focus on few key concepts
Repeat them over time
Spaced Repetition
 To master something, learners should focus on a few key
concepts, repeat them over time, immerse themselves deeply
in them, and expand on the ideas and skills
Immense ourselves deeply in them
Expand on the ideas & skills
Learning smaller bits of information more frequently instead of learning
larger chunks of information less frequently

10. Negative filtering
 Doubting ourselves leads to becoming closed
minded , judgmental & fearful
 This leads to negative thinking & keeps us from
using knowledge with imagination

11. Negative filtering issues
1. See problems with new data
2. Need more time to get ready
3. Like aspects of the way it is now
4. Don’t think it’s that urgent
5. Afraid they’ll make initial mistakes
6. Don’t see rewards
7. See risks or obstacles in the way
8. Have too much to do already

12. Negative filtering
 Doubting ourselves leads to becoming closed
minded , judgmental & fearful
 This leads to negative thinking & keeps us from
using knowledge with imagination
Cure for this
An Open Mind
Instead of looking for what’s wrong in
the new information, actively look for
what’s right.

13. Lack of follow up
 Successful people have a follow up learning
 The sequence
 Tell me
 Show me
 Let me
 Observe me
 Praise me and / or
 Redirect me
 The above is simple but powerful follow up plan to
help potential winners to become genuine winners

14. Focus on a few key concepts , get deeper into
them and expand on ideas
And skills involved .
Spaced repetition is the key
Listen with no prejudice or preconceived ideas
Listen assuming always an attitude of
continuous learning and receive the
New information with emotions
Listen thinking always how to use what is heard

15. Happy Reading, Learning & Application
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ramaddster@gmail.com