Abstract

This article explains why strangers are the most essential ingredient in reaching your full potential and can serve as your greatest competitive advantage in the battle to innovate, create, and deliver greater quality and value to external and internal customers. Strangers play a vital role in innovation, which is a fundamental driver of great quality. Most new ideas are based on the thinking and practices of others (strangers) in other industries, disciplines, walks of life, cultures, periods in history, or parts of the world. The right strangers bring new ideas, perspectives, and practices that can help you question, rethink, and improve the way you do the things that matter most. The article includes anecdotes that illustrate how strangers drive innovation, and how they test your openness to new and better ways. This article is adapted from the book The Necessity of Strangers: The Intriguing Truth About Insight, Innovation, and Success (Jossey-Bass, 2013).