Why it can be so good to be wrong

"A person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have." – Tim Ferris, The 4-Hour Workweek

Do you fear being wrong? I think I always have, but I’ve been fortunate to land in places where I am expected to be wrong. In Taiwan, I arrived with next to zero knowledge about anything. The expectation was that I would be wrong. Importantly, this was my expectation first and foremost, and it opened me to learning. When I started an apprenticeship in plumbing and heating during the great recession, I knew next to nothing about the trade, and, again, this opened me to learning. Granted, I was learning it from my brother, who likely got frustrated with my many, many questions, but thankfully he was patient enough as I tried to understand what I was doing.

Those chances for failing while learning have stuck with me throughout my professional life because it's rare to have opportunities where we can truly own ignorance to accelerate our learning curve forward.

It’s okay to not know the answers

Admitting that you don’t know the answer is hard. It’s uncomfortable. It’s something that runs contrary to how we are taught. If you don’t know the answer in school, you have failed to do your job. While not always that black and white, it is a blanket statement that is reinforced through standardized tests, college admissions, and many interview processes.

But this shortchanges the opportunity for innovation, particularly if you are seeking to do something truly different. I recently listened to a podcast of Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman (podcast host and co-founder of LinkedIn) interviewing Ed Catmull, the co-founder of Pixar and president of Walt Disney Animation Studios. Catmull talks about his perspective on being right as he transitioned from New York Tech to Lucasfilm, saying that “about half of my theories about how to get the thing I experienced at Utah worked, and half of them didn’t work at all. So now in going to Lucasfilm, I’m going to come up with new ways of doing things, then I’m going to hang on to the things that work.” Later in the conversation, he continued to build on this perspective as the two talked about leadership, and how to lead in a way that fosters innovation:

“That process of doing something new is an iterative process, and it requires a lot of people. The most damaging thing is if the leader thinks their job is to be right and to know the answer, well, you’re kind of shutting things off when you think that way. It’s like, well, I don’t know. Let’s work it out together. We’re all in this together.”

“I don’t know. Let’s work it out together.”

Listening to that podcast made me think back to my days as a student teacher. Still in college and standing in front of a room full of high school kids, I was not able to say those words: “I don’t know. Let’s work it out together.” At that time, my perspective of leadership was that the leader needs to have the answers or things will unravel into chaos. Apologies to the Jesuits that taught me for eight years, but it was hard to shake this ingrained belief.

As a young teacher, I thought it was my job to have the answers. Maybe not all the answers, but certainly a lot of them. While teaching in Taiwan a year later, I had a lot of time to reflect on this in a place where I recognized my ignorance and was constantly reminded of it, whether it was a failure in buying the right train ticket or a misunderstanding with one of my many co-teachers, disrupting the flow of our often-disjointed lessons.

Over the years and careers of my professional life, I’ve gained a lot of context on how to own ignorance and leverage collaboration to iterate as a team.

“How stupid I was a year ago.”

I recently read Adam Grant’s book, Think Again, which helped me to better own this thought – a thought I’ve had many times over the years, including my examples above: how stupid I was a year ago. In the book, Grant highlights the benefit of being able to have this thought because it means that you’ve learned a lot over the previous year and have embraced that learning in a way that helps evolve your perspective.

A true sign of intelligence and adaptability is that willingness to evolve with new information, rather than holding onto a belief like, for example, that a leader needs to have all the answers. This is such a simple shift in perspective that creates such powerful outcomes. This is a shift from negative self-talk to embracing growth and accepting the evolving self.

How do we recognize wrongness/rightness?

While I haven’t found a surefire way to recognize wrongness, I’ve found some ways that have helped me over the last twenty years. The best are ones that get me uncomfortable like the opening quote to this article. This can come from learning something new. Hobbies and languages are especially good at resetting the rightness/wrongness/learning perspective.

Embracing different groups taps into diverse perspectives. I work on a lot of content and have owned several industry reports for the last few years. To create these, I work with internal teams, contractors, and industry experts. I actively seek people out that can tell me I’m wrong and are open to answering my questions about why. Data can be really complicated to interpret, and I understood quickly that to create an appealing product, my perspective alone would not do it.

Outside of work, I volunteer on a few boards and for many different kids’ activities – some where I know something, like sports, and others where I know nothing, like scouting. This allows me to get out of my comfort zone on a regular basis and to challenge my perspective by listening to others.

Embrace listening, questioning, and thinking again

My favorite thing about my professional life’s journey is the opportunity for learning from thoughtful, intelligent people, and I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by them in every professional experience I’ve had. This is not to say that these experiences have been perfect. Sometimes it’s really frustrating to converse with someone that challenges your opinion or asks questions that you’re not prepared to answer. But the end outcome delivers a better, sharper self when embraced.

"Saying 'I don't know' can feel vulnerable, but it's a sign of growth. It opens the door to new possibilities and fosters a more collaborative approach to problem-solving. As I continue on my professional journey, I strive to embrace the discomfort of not knowing and see it as an opportunity to evolve and learn.

As Albert Einstein said, 'The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.' Let's cultivate a culture of curiosity and continuous learning, both individually and collaboratively. This is the path to true innovation and progress.

How has rightness/wrongness influenced your professional or personal journey? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Thanks again and have a wonderful week ahead!

Gerry