Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant

Earlier this week I finished another fascinating work by?Adam Grant?Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know . In this book the author uses a healthy mix of theory and applications with vivid examples of why we should embrace?unlearning and rethinking?instead of stopping at?learning and thinking. Just before this book was published earlier this year, I participated in a Goodreads (social book reading site) Giveaway and was selected as one of the 10 winners. Although they immediately mailed me the book, it took me some time to get to it after finishing up several in my to-read list. I am glad that I finally got to it and will surely read it again in future. The book has lots of illustrations, graphs, tables and charts which make it reading the hard copy more useful than listening in audible.?

The author advocates 3 different levels of rethinking for us -?Individual,?Interpersonal?and?Collective. He advocates to think like a scientist and search for truth, to identify where we might have gone wrong instead of trying to find where we are right, explaining some common pitfalls of preachers, politicians and prosecutors. Thinking like a scientist means being actively open-minded. Scientific thinking favors humility over pride, doubt over certainty, curiosity over closure.?

Adam warns us not to prefer confidence over competence explaining the example of Dunning-Krugger effect. He shows the tools we frequently cling to like assumptions, instincts, habits instead of having an open mind, which leads to overconfidence cycle (instead of rethinking cycle). We often favor feeling right over being right. My favorite quote here is - "The first rule of Dunning-Kruger club is that you don't know you're a member of Dunning-Kruger club."

While explaining it, he gave the analogy of being at the summit of?Mount Stupid?when we know a little bit early in our knowledge gathering and show overconfidence only to fall down to the valley of despair as we learn more, before finally getting to enlightenment and sustainability.?

Achieving excellence in school often requires mastering old ways of thinking. Building an influential career demands new ways of thinking. He tells us to prefer judging our work instead of judging ourselves. Knowledge is best sought from experts, but creativity and wisdom can come from anywhere.?

The author also talks about the importance of?task conflict?when describing interpersonal thinking where people can disagree with each on the merit of a task to find the best possible outcome instead of confronting each other as person heading into?relationship conflict. In the absence of conflict HIPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) wins which is not the best outcome most of the time. So instead of?agreeableness?and?support network?he recommends building?challenge network?so that our ideas get good pushbacks resulting in further refinements. He also asks us to learn from the art of debate where we can win by not trying to be a?logic bully?and instead find common grounds and ask thoughtful questions to bring deep thinking into the table. He shows how debate can be done better with dance than going for war.?

He talks about the?strength of weak opinions instead of?righting reflex?as well as where?inverse charisma?is a sign for magnetic quality of a great listener. He describes motivational interviewing techniques focusing on -?

• asking open-ended questions
• engaging in reflective listening
• affirming the person's desire and ability to change
• summarizing with nuance, caveat, contingencies in mind

While bringing the discussions to collective rethinking, Adam points out that often we have to choose any 2 of being?accurate,?simple?and?well received. He emphasizes that diversity is good, but it isn't easy. He says that?psychological safety is not a matter of relaxing standards, making people comfortable, being nice and agreeable, or giving unconditional praise. It's fostering a climate of respect, trust, and openness in which people can raise concerns and suggestions without fear of reprisal. It's the foundation of a?learning culture. But in?performance cultures, the emphasis on results often undermines psychological safety.

While describing?rethinking scorecard?the author suggests that a bad process with a good outcome is luck while a good process with a bad outcome may be a smart experiment. This gives us an alternate?narrative to what we call?Take Risks?and?Fail Fast?in our corporate leadership values.

Overall I got a lot of food for thoughts reading this book. This will rank amongst the best books I have ever read in terms of its pragmatic approach and practical usage in my work and life.