Product review (4 stars): Friends we have yet to meet
Common sense and openmindedness are at the heart of Alan Gregerman's tome in praise of strangers. In clear and affable fashion, Gregerman guides his readers in an almost Socratic manner to embrace the insights and wisdom that are available to us once we look beyond the known.

Oddly -- or fortuitously -- enough, you and I are engaging in one of the practices he suggests in his book. One of the hallmarks of Amazon is its growing library of peer reviews and images. We don't know each other, and yet you paused in your consideration of this book to find out what earlier readers thought about it. And this is not a one-way street; there's every chance that you may use the "comment" function to add a question or other thought that would transform this from one person's observations and reflections into a conversation.

Meantime, back to&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Necessity-of-Strangers-The-Intriguing-Truth-About-Insight-Innovation-and-Success/dp/1118461304/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Necessity of Strangers: The Intriguing Truth About Insight, Innovation, and Success</a>. Gregerman begins with context, reviewing reasons for the common mistrust of strangers before illustrating how small even the largest personal network is likely to be. The nod to Socratic method begins with him asking readers to think about effective ways of gathering information, improving product, and thoroughly understanding our underlying mindset -- why we think the way we do, and how we can stretch ourselves beyond the status quo.

After exploring context, which he calls framework, Gregerman asks readers to consider how to translate interacting with strangers from abstract to concrete: using these new relationships to spur innovation, collaboration, leadership, and customers, both existing and new (yet more "strangers"). Before setting us loose on a newly inviting world, Gregerman provides a succinct toolkit of strategies and techniques that we can begin using in everyday situations, as well as ways to spur our thinking and reflection.

He makes many thought-provoking points, and I believe they are best read in sequence. In fact, if you have an e-reader, you may want to buy the digital version so that you can highlight and annotate particularly salient thoughts.

However, it is worth touching on the four guiding principles that are at the heart of this book. "Humility--the belief that we don't know everything and that we can always be better at the things that matter most. Curiosity--our innate gift for being open to new ideas, new people, and new possibilities. Respect--the belief that everyone matters and that we learn and grow by engaging other people on their own terms. Purpose--our reason for being that guides our efforts to learn and grow."

Although most of  Gregerman's examples and prescriptions deal with the workplace, they are readily applicable to life beyond the office, and even to one's own reflective practice. Indeed, one of the overarching principles is to seek out differences -- different outlooks, different areas of expertise, and even different lands -- and almost immediately to build human bridges of commonality. Particularly dear to my heart is his repeated statement that travel enriches the traveler and brings the world closer. In that vein, if you'd like, please do feel free to treat this review as the start of a conversation.