B.O.O.S.T. Podcast
B.O.O.S.T. Podcast
Alan Gregerman on the Power of Not Knowing | EP164
What if not knowing was the key to unlocking your next big idea? In this energizing episode, award-winning author and keynote speaker, Alan Gregerman, explores the power of curiosity, humility, and the wisdom of ignorance. Alan shares how embracing what we don’t know can spark creativity, deepen connection, and lead to breakthrough innovation especially in a world that’s changing faster than ever.
Whether you're leading a team, building a brand, or navigating change, this episode will challenge your assumptions and inspire fresh thinking.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-gregerman-a33b236/
Website: https://alangregerman.com/
Book: https://alangregerman.com/the-wisdom-of-ignorance/
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The world is changing super fast. It's a bit presumptuous on our part to think that five years from now our companies or organizations can be the same and still be relevant to the customers we serve.
Kelly Leonard:That was Alan Gregerman. Alan is an award-winning and best-selling author and keynote speaker. His latest book, The Wisdom of Ignorance, explores how embracing what we don't know can unlock creativity, connection, and breakthrough ideas in the world that's changing faster than ever. In today's episode, Alan shares strategies to build your brand. I'm Kelly Leonard, and this is the Boost Podcast.
Announcer:Welcome to the Boost Podcast, the podcast created to ignite your business and career potential. In each episode, host Kelly Leonard and her guests dive into one aspect of Kelly's signature boost framework, ensuring you get practical, actionable insights, tips, and takeaways to build your brand, optimize relationships, obtain more leads, secure thought leadership space, and tap into new markets. And now, here's Kelly Leonard.
Kelly Leonard:Hey Alan, welcome to the Boost Podcast.
Alan Gregerman:Well, thank you for inviting me. I'm delighted to be here.
Kelly Leonard:So for folks who are hearing your name for the very first time, tell the listeners a bit about yourself.
Alan Gregerman:Well, I'm an innovation consultant and I've been doing it for a while, um, probably longer than people have been thinking about innovation. You know, when I started being an innovation consultant, it wasn't as popular as it is now. Now it seems everybody's talking about innovation. I also write books. I've written four books about innovation. I have a new book coming out in October. And I do a lot of volunteering in our community. I donate 20% of my time to hopefully organizations that are making the world a little bit of a better place.
Kelly Leonard:Love that. And I know your most recent book is The Wisdom of Ignorance. And so tell us a little bit about why not knowing is so important.
Alan Gregerman:Okay, good. So here's the thing. Think about this. If I know a lot about something, I can figure out how to make it better. I know the ins and outs of it. I can figure out a feature or how to support it better, or any variety of ways. If I don't know much about something or I don't know anything about something, I'm more likely to take a fresh look at it, to look at it with new eyes, to imagine its possibilities. So I like to say there's a lot of value in knowing a lot, but there's genius in not knowing much at all.
Kelly Leonard:Wow. That's a really great perspective. And so because a lot of our listeners are leaders andor entrepreneurs, how can leaders and entrepreneurs really create cultures where they will embrace this level of curiosity or not knowing, especially when you think about kind of, you know, a lot of folks are are concerned, let's say, about undermining their confidence or their credibility. So so how how would you say we should tackle that?
Alan Gregerman:Well, so that's a really good question. And I think a few things we should think about. The first is the world is changing super fast. It's a bit presumptuous on our part to think that five years from now our companies or organizations can be the same and still be relevant to the customers we serve. So I think we have to have that in the back of our mind. The second thing I want people to think about is when I talk about what I call enlightened ignorance, and that is trying to figure out a new or remarkable way, that doesn't mean we bet the entire farm or ranch. What it means is that we're constantly testing the marketplace, talking with customers, asking them what else they would like, so that we can start to tweak a bit our business or add things to our business so eventually we get to the place where we're really aligned with what customers are hoping for.
Kelly Leonard:So this term, enlightened ignorance, can you say a little bit more about that?
Alan Gregerman:Oh, sure. So, you know, when I first kind of launched the idea of the book, people said, Well, you know, there's so much ignorance around us. Um, why would you title a book like that? So I want people to think about the difference between stupidity, which is everywhere, and the notion that enlightened ignorance, what I call enlightened ignorance, is really what's guided humans throughout the course of human history. So all progress is made by people saying, I don't actually know the answer, but I'm doggedly determined to figure it out. And whether it's harnessing the power of the sun for energy or figuring out irrigation, you know, which has happened around the world, people have figured that out, or making fire, or creating eyeglasses, which I've worn since kindergarten. Um, whatever the case was, humans said we don't exactly know what to do, but we're determined to figure it out. We need to do that. And so that's enlightened ignorance. Now I think of enlightened ignorance as six essential things. The first is I got to be purposeful. And so I suggest to everyone, and my guess is your listeners are listening to the show because they're purposeful and they want to figure out how to be better. But the reality is, in the absence of a compelling purpose, a reason for my business or organization, a reason to wake up every day and be energized, I can't be remarkably innovative. So purpose drives things. Then I need to be curious. So you asked a great question about how to leaders kind of engage people to be excited about change or be open to not learning, to not knowing stuff. And I would say they do it this way. First is they come clean. And leaders say, you know, I don't have all the answers. And so, but we're gonna together go on a journey to figure out how to solve this problem. The second is leaders say, we need to be way more curious as an organization, curious about the changes going on in the world, curious about our customers' world and what matters to them. So we're actually gonna leave the building and go out and engage with the world around us and talk with customers more. You know, everybody says to me as a business consultant, well, my customers are happy with what we do. The reality is they're happy because they haven't seen anything better yet. But somebody is waiting to disrupt you. Somebody's waiting to offer something better. And so I'd much rather have you be the one that disrupts you than have somebody out there do it. Curiosity. Then humility, I mentioned that, the whole idea that we can't know everything, but that's a good thing if we use humility in the right way. If we use humility to say, this is an important challenge or opportunity, I don't know the answer. Let me try and figure it out. The fourth is respect. I should respect every single person I ever meet, whether they're super different from me or not, because they all know something that I don't know, and something they know could make me better or more successful. So I really want to be connecting with a lot of people, everyone, and especially people who are different than me, because they have different ideas and perspectives. The fifth is I feel like we all need to be future focused. And when I say that, what I'm talking about is a simple notion, we got to pay attention. You know, we're sitting in our offices or at our dining room table if we work remotely or wherever we are, and the world is passing by us and it's giving us clues every day about where it's going, but we don't pay attention to those. Or we get on the subway or the bus or in our car and we're looking at our phone when we can. So we're missing the world going by. We have to pay attention to where the world is going and try these experiments that help us to get there. And then the last thing, which I have to admit my wife was not keen on, is I believe we all need to be paranoid. And so she goes, Well, that's not a very pleasant word. And I go, but it's really important. We all need to act in business like somebody's following us, okay? We need to act as though there's somebody wanting to eat our lunch, but we need to instead be the ones who figure out how to do remarkable things.
Kelly Leonard:Wow. Those are all really good. I mean, it's there's so much depth in each one of those elements. Um, and it's really, I mean, especially when you think of the world in which we live in right now, um, to be purposeful, curiosity, have humility. Particularly what landed squarely for me is is respect. Um, because, you know, it's just an interesting time that we we lived in, live in. And I think also this whole notion of being future forward certainly can appreciate that as well. Um, the reality is that oftentimes um folks are so uh wetted or close to what they're doing or vested in what they're doing that they're unwilling to perhaps disrupt what has, to your point, traditionally worked well to consider the possibilities of what could be different.
Alan Gregerman:Well, you're absolutely right, but I don't believe we have the luxury of not thinking about the future and how we have to be different because the future is gonna be different. We can't be the same and be as relevant in the future. And you simply need to ask customers where would they like to get to? That's gonna help you have an idea of a target that you need to hit. And then you just need to wander around. You know, so we're in DC, but other people that listen are in all kinds of other places. They just need to get out and wander around wherever they are and pay attention to all the clues. What's new, what's hip, what's the market doing differently, what are customers asking for, what business models are working well. We just need to do that.
Kelly Leonard:So can you, I guess practically speaking, can you share a moment, um, perhaps in your own journey where embracing not knowing has led to sort of this tremendous breakthrough, either personally or professionally?
Alan Gregerman:Uh, you know, we've talked a lot about business. So let me give you a personal example because it really gets at the heart of this book. Four and a half years ago, I had a really rare stroke, and the doctors at Johns Hopkins, I couldn't see or speak, and the doctors at Johns Hopkins didn't know if I would ever speak again. Um, I had 18 months of therapy to be able to speak again, and during that time I thought about a lot of things, including what I would do if I couldn't speak, and then hoping, of course, that I would get to speak again, because I'm actually a keynote speaker, so speaking is pretty important. Um, but what I realized was, because I had my stroke over dinner with our family, is the world's an uncertain place. We never know the next day or over dinner what's going to happen. So we need to be prepared for that and we need to be able to act. So I think that I've always thought that the world was an uncertain place. My field is innovation, that we always need to up our game. But that really made me realize, you know, that my world is uncertain too, and I better up my game.
Kelly Leonard:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And so when you think about your work and work around innovation in general, and then with the advent and the introduction of AI, all things AI, can you share a little bit of insight or wisdom into because I know I believe part of what you're sharing is it's like, you know, sort of this inner work or this quiet time, finding space to allow yourself to be curious. However, how do you feel about tools that oftentimes I think can invite curiosity, of course, if we're prompting them correctly or what have you, but it could also dim our the, you know, our own ability to think really cure curiously, creatively, innovatively because we're relying so heavily on technology.
Alan Gregerman:Yeah, no, so that's fair. And I think you hit on kind of an important point is we can prompt AI. AI is only as good as what we ask it to do as our partner. But I love humans. I gotta be honest with you. And I believe no matter how well we prompt, it's gonna be humans who connect the dots. Remember, innovation is about connecting dots that have never been connected before. That doesn't mean the dots don't exist. 99% of all new ideas are based on someone else's thinking or something found in nature. So the dots exist, but humans need to connect dots that haven't been connected before. And so I really believe in humans. I use AI to make me smarter, quicker about certain things, but I don't use it to solve problems.
Kelly Leonard:Yeah, I agree. I agree completely. Um, and so for folks who are listening and they want to perhaps grab your new book or just tap into your wisdom, your brilliance, what's the best way for people to reach out to you?
Alan Gregerman:Well, so they can go on my website, which is simply alangregorman.com, A-L-A-N, G-R-E-G-E-R-M-A-N.com. They can connect with me on LinkedIn. I would be delighted to connect with them. Don't follow me, connect with me, um, because I'd like to learn from you. Um, so they can do that. Uh, they can read the book, The Wisdom of Ignorance. And I actually offer an unconditional guarantee of satisfaction. If they buy my book and they don't find it valuable, I'll buy it back from them. But I'd love them to read the book because we can only, you know, I love your show, but we only get 15 minutes, you know, and there's a lot more in the book than these 15 minutes, to be honest, I hope. Okay.
Kelly Leonard:And I am confident that, you know, if they had an additional 15 minutes with the great Alan Gregerman, even that is not going to be enough. So I would definitely encourage people to reach out to Alan, absolutely grab his book. And Alan, I am so thankful and grateful that you were able to navigate um your path to wellness because you definitely have a voice that needs to be heard. And so I'm I'm grateful for the work that undoubtedly you had to do um during that period in order to be fully restored to your health.
Alan Gregerman:Well, well, you're too kind. The exciting thing, and I'll leave this, but you know, the doctor said they didn't know if I would speak. The speech therapists, a wonderful group of women, I have to be honest, came to my house three times a week and they said, I don't know if I can say this word on your show. I'll say, Darn it, you're gonna speak if I have to come here every single day, and we're gonna do all these exercises, and for months you still won't be able to make a sound. You just gotta get with the program. And I believed in them.
Kelly Leonard:Wow, wow, that's the power of teamwork, right? Awesome.
Alan Gregerman:And respecting anyone, right?
Kelly Leonard:That's right, that's right, because we don't know what we don't know. So that's for sure. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. Definitely wishing you tremendous success with this new book. I'm sure it's gonna be a hit, and I look forward to picking up my copy.
Alan Gregerman:Super thanks for having me on, Kelly. I appreciate it.
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