The Power of I Don’t Know with Adam Grant

They say the power of ‘No’ is important for our mental health in providing boundaries for ourselves, but what if there’s power in another no/know, the “I don’t know”? That’s what Adam Grant, #1 New York Times best-selling author, is here to teach you, and I am here to get you on board.

I learned about Adam Grant, an Organizational Psychologist, from my current leader. She’s passionate about continuous learning and podcasts like me, and during a weekly one-on-one, she suggested that I check out Adam Grant on Dax Shepard’s podcast, Arm Chair Expert. The minute Adam went in on how we fundamentally think and how we can best learn from our ways of thinking, I was hooked.

Literally, I don’t think I stopped talking about this podcast for a few weeks until my friends had that “you already told me” look on their faces. I could not stop preaching about the concept of a maximizer and a satisficer to my friends, especially how it correlated to every aspect of our lives.

Let me see if I can hook you with this concept, too!

“Maximizers are people who want the very best. Satisficers are people who want good enough,” according to Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and author of “The Paradox of Choice.”

It turns out that the way we think has a huge effect on our levels of happiness. Say you’re on a long flight to Los Angeles, and you have your in-flight entertainment of the latest movies at your fingertips. Are you going to scroll until you find the first movie that you want to watch and hit “Play,” OR do you scroll and scroll passing by movies that you know are good but you’re not sure it’s the best one to watch until you’ve scrolled the whole list?

A Satisficer (satisfy + suffice) will quickly choose an option that they know they will be happy with, while a Maximizer may take longer weighing their options, making sure that there is no other movie option that could be better.

In most instances, the Satisficer will be 30 minutes into their movie, laughing and having a great time while their seat partner is still debating which movie is the perfect movie for their flight. As you can see, the life of the Satisficer is a little less stressful, while a Maximizer is always thinking about what else or who else.

This concept hit me over the head as soon as I heard it, and I couldn’t wait to start applying this knowledge to everyone and everything. Suddenly, I could spot a satisficer friend when out to dinner or while swiping through a dating app I could easily spot which guys were maximizers based on their profile.

I was on a knowledge high and did not want to come back down! It was fascinating learning more about the how and why of our thinking behaviors. Guys, I was deep into the world of Adam Grant, and I wanted more! More podcasts, more TedTalks, and more books! So last week, when I stumbled upon queen Brene Brown’s podcast Dare to Lead with Adam, I once again devoured a podcast as if it was 2014, and the first season of Serial on NPR dropped.

In this more recent episode, Adam was talking about his new book “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know,” and that’s when I knew that I had picked the right Organizational Psychologist to crush on. As Adam told Brené, “If what we know is knowledge, then knowing what we don’t know is wisdom.” Brené had an a-ha moment, and I had a “HOLY CRAP I have been saying this for YEARS” moment!

I know you’re shocked that a guy who has been studying the way we think for his whole adult life and I think alike..but we do! There is such incredible power in being honest with what we don’t know, and when you can admit that to others (especially at work), you are actually showing your strengths.

Why is not knowing something a strength? Well, it allows us to say, “I don’t know how to set up an event, but I am confident that I know the right people who can help me out!” You’re getting the opportunity to flex what you do know and who you know, and that really can showcase a great amount of confidence to others.

See, whenever I start a new job, I feel comfortable sharing that I don’t know what I don’t know. I do follow that up with a “But I’ll get there.” And guess what–no leader has ever been upset with my honesty.

Seriously, people are going to say things like, “Wow, I know Meghan said she wasn’t sure how to pull that event together, but she really crushed it in the end.”

When I started as a Product Owner on a technology project, I honestly said I had no idea how SAFeAgile worked (technology project methodology). However, I was eager to learn more and that I would eventually know it.

Not only did I figure it out, but I also got SAFe Agile certified! That certification wasn’t easy, but I gave my leader confidence, knowing that I wouldn’t lie about what I know. See, this is where we can get tripped up in the workplace.

We fear that if we admit we don’t know something, we’ll be looked down upon, so we lie. But that’s where you actually get in trouble. Lying about what we know can often hurt a project or a team. I learned this early on in my career; being honest about what I didn’t know would be worth more in the end than lying about what I did know.

This is what I want to share with you and why I need you to run to your local bookstore or library and grab Adam’s latest book. In the past year and a half, many of us have had to pivot, personally and professionally. We are learning and unlearning years of hard work and schooling to catch up with these changing times. And while you may have been just labeled a ‘Geriatric Millennial’ like me (oh that rant is for another day!) we know the power of mental flexibility.

As you continue through your WFH/remote job or are beginning a new one, I urge you to find confidence in what you do not know and then challenge yourself to figure it out. Your boss needs a deck with a handful of different logos from departments within your company and you don’t know where to find them? Be honest about that, “I don’t have those logos myself, but I think I may know someone in our Communications department who can help me.”

This example is great because you first acknowledged what you don’t know, and second, you let the wisdom follow up with a “but I may know a guy.” Ok, let’s keep going and take this even further. You find the logos, put them in a SharePoint folder, and send a note to the team, “I’m starting a logo folder on our SharePoint, so we have a one-stop shop for our future decks; please feel free to add logos as you find them!”

This is a two-fold win: You helped yourself, and you are also helping others. Showing your leader and your team that you have the skills to get the work done is sometimes better than having the information immediately. I may not always know the answer, but I probably know someone who does. Who we know is as important as what we know; that’s how we can continue to expand our knowledge!

That’s the best part of the work that Adam Grant is putting out into the world; it’s to challenge us to open our minds and think differently and then do the same for others around us. Maybe that’s why I can’t stop talking about it.

So, if you haven’t figured it out by now, the way to be the smartest person you can be is, to be honest about what you know and what you do not know; I swear it’s going to only work out for the best!