The Necessity of Strangers: The Intriguing Truth about Insight, Innovation, and Success

by Alan Gregerman

A counterintuitive approach to fostering greater innovation, collaboration, and engagement Most of us assume our success relies on a network of friends and close contacts. But innovative thinking requires a steady stream of fresh ideas and new possibilities, which strangers are more likely to introduce. Our survival instincts naturally cause us to look upon strangers with suspicion and distrust, but in The Necessity of Strangers, Alan Gregerman offers the provocative idea that engaging with strangers is an opportunity, not a threat, and that engaging with the right strangers is essential to unlocking our real potential. The Necessity of Strangers reveals how strangers challenge us to think differently about ourselves and the problems we face.Shows how strangers can help us innovate better, get the most out of each other, and achieve genuine collaboration Presents principles for developing a "stranger-centric" mindset to develop new markets and stronger customer relationships, leverage the full potential of partnerships, and become more effective leaders Includes practical guidance and a toolkit for being more open, creating new ideas that matter, finding the right strangers in all walks of life, and tapping the real brilliance in yourself To stay competitive, you and your business need access to more new ideas, insights, and perspectives than ever before. The Necessity of Strangers offers an essential guide to discovering the most exciting opportunities you haven't met yet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Psychology

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Connor Magary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stranger danger is bs. Strangers provide new perspectives.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Necessity of Strangers reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell's books wherein the thread of the subject- in this case strangers- get weaved into stories and accounts that are varied and fascinating.

Strangers. Even if we include all our most casual of contacts, the number of people we "know" is roughly 0.000000142 of the entire world. Not many. So strangers are an important imperative part of all our lives.

Alan Gregerman says that "we are wired to go along with, and attach ourselves to our own groups." So we need to rethink people. "Innovation is all about connecting with, learning from, collaborating with, and empowering strangers." Diverse isn't all about skin color.

"What we should be searching for are truly diverse people who are very different- in what they've studied and the way they've been trained, the experiences and accomplishments they've had and the way they look at the world and our business." When we allow strangers to take part in our lives and our businesses, we become inspired and new possibilities are presented toward jobs you do everyday."

A few guiding principles for a more open mindset to your life are:
Humility- You don't know everything
Curiosity- Open to new ideas, new people, new possibilities
Respect- everyone matters
Purpose- Our reason for being that guides our efforts

Alan Gregerman gives countless interesting examples as diverse as Vidal Sassoon, 3M Company, TED Talks, Khan Academy, and what is was that made them excel.

I thought this would be a dry book about business success because you are willing to embrace strangers, instead it is a fascinating book about business success because you are willing to embrace strangers.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, the author argues that strangers are an essential part of innovation and that to truly cultivate creativity and innovation we need to be open to new ideas, meeting strangers and learning from different cultures and disciplines outside of our own culture or discipline. The author illustrates this point through a variety of case studies in both business and everyday life to demonstrate how contact with strangers can be helpful for sparking innovation. While the case studies are interesting the author doesn't really explain how to implement these ideas. This is a good book to read to inspire you to be open to learning from other people, but while the author provides a couple of ideas on how to do that, for the most part what he discusses is shared as ideas as opposed to really examining how to implement these ideas meaningfully. Still I recommend reading this book to challenge yourself to be more open to new ideas.

[Jacob O'connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice contrast to the recent Harvard Business Review article about the benefits of familiarity.  The book is exactly what you would expect: Some studies and more than a few anecdotes about how strangers can help you become more creative, offer a fresh perspective, and increase your knowledge base.  If nothing else, I’m glad I read this because it encouraged me to be friendlier and more outgoing. Really, this is what these business books do.  They give you a quick jolt of inspiration.  I can be a real hermit if left on my own (duh), so I need this jolt from time to time. 

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like the author Alan Gregerman being a consultant and all, is trying to shed light on how leaders should be asking for their insight from people who aren't a part of the daily routine. I connect this to him being a consultant because one of the benefits of being a consultant is that you walk into the building likely with a different mentality than the rest of the workforce.

This book does great on explaining how you can keep yourself and your team from stagnation within the context of fixed perspectives. Read it if you want to learn how to use others to step out of the box!

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. He makes some interesting points that you can apply to your life (both business and personal). I especially liked how he provided some different techniques for applying the information he presented. The section I found the most useful was his writing on leadership and how the leadership of an organization can apply his ideas.

All in all it was pretty good but also somewhat similar to other "Make your business better" books. Nothing too earth shattering that is presented.

[Theodore Kinni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gregerman does a solid job of explaining "why strangers are the real key to our growth as individuals, companies, and organizations," and sometimes he gets downright lyrical about it in a Charles Handy-ish sort of way.

[Debi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good idea but it should have been an article, not a book.

[Hamed Farmand · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a parent, adult, or entrepreneur, read and enjoy this book.