PRAISE FOR NOT KNOWING

“Knowledge was power; now curiosity is power. To be curious, we must fundamentally accept that we don’t know everything and be open to exploring the myriad of information sources that we now have at our finger tips. I love this book because it not only encourages us, but it compels us to be comfortable with Not Knowing and helps us realise that a new and exciting path can be created when we do. A must read for anyone who wants to be successful in the 21st Century and beyond.”

Rebecca Miller, Head of Future Capability at National Australia Bank

“This is an important and significant book. It is well written and lucid, using a wealth of examples and stories to develop arguments in a compelling way. Its message is critical in these difficult times. It should be required reading for rationalists everywhere.”

Gareth Jones, Visiting Professor IE Business School and bestselling Author of Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?

“Not Knowing is being comfortable with curiosity, loving it, as we create the future we all want to be a part of. The craft of entrepreneurs is to demystify the unknown. Master storytellers Steven and Diana help us explore this fascinating world, in an erudite and engaging manner, in which we all become a part of the stories behind the people driving change.”

Sherry Coutu CBE, Entrepreneur, Non-Exec Director, Investor and Advisor to companies, universities and charities

“A fascinating, insightful, reassuring and practical exploration of a critical stage that will unnerve even the most productive person. This book demystifies what all of us experience, worry about, try to avoid and yet live with. It is a must have for any person facing the unknown, dancing at the edge of discovery, wanting to break out of their existing mould. It will be recommended reading for all my leadership programmes.”

Magdalena Bak-Maier PhD, Talent Coach, Leadership Development Specialist and Author of Get Productive!

“Despite our brains being programmed to search for certainty, a commonly cited proverb states that the only certain things in life is death and taxes! D’Souza and Renner’s book is a vigorous, lucid and illustrative tour on the meaning of uncertainty and its implications for our private and professional lives. Destined to become a reference book for managers who aim to improve their strategic vision, the book offers valuable insights and advice on how to find equilibrium in a constantly changing and uncertain world.”

Santiago Iniguez de Onzono, Dean of IE Business School

“This book is a critical guide for current and future leaders. We need our leaders of today and tomorrow to navigate and embrace the unknown in order to successfully respond to that which awaits us. Embrace the stories that are told within this work- they are powerful. Then ask yourself what is your story and your ability to lead in such a time.”

Kate Harris, Chief Executive Officer at the Centre for Sustainability Leadership

“Not Knowing is brilliant. Renner and D’Souza condition us to accept what we know and to lean in to what we don’t. Who knew Not Knowing was such a smart thing to do? I’m not vulnerable if I don’t know what I or others think I need to know. Rather, “not knowing” is a gateway to more progress. This book is a helpful mix of theory and practice. It’s grounded and well researched. Well done! The book helped me and I’ll recommend it to others.”

Ed O’Malley, President and CEO of Kansas Leadership Center

“In an interconnected world, dealing with complexity distinguishes the great leader from the adequate manager. Future shock and tipping points lead us to “Finisterre”: the edge of knowledge. Our daily life in the planet human system requires new approaches. Renner and D’Souza’s work provides new insights and practical tools to guide us.”

Richard Dent OAM, CEO of Leadership Victoria

“The premise that D’Souza and Renner offer is intuitively obvious, but rarely recognized and they do a terrific job of bringing it to our consciousness. It is certainty they argue against; the arrogance of believing somehow that knowledge is finite and waiting as a bride in the vestibule for us to merely get our cognitive tuxedo on. Yet all of us - even the brilliant and successful - realize it is the Unknowing that provides the inspiration for all that we do. It is so seductive to be right, even as that prospect strips our world of wonder. To read and practice what this work suggests is to shrug off habits and attitudes that keep us from the true joy of living and creating. I will keep it next to my bed.”

Terry Pearce, author of Leading Out Loud and Clicks and Mortar, Founder and President of Leadership Communication

“We all need the safe and familiar but your relationship with the unknown plays a big part in determining the quality of your life. When you see the unknown as full of possibility and potential, you will allow yourself to be excited, inspired, curious, empowered and courageous. Steven and Diana’s book is an invitation to your enquiry with the unknown and an opportunity to develop a new relationship with the unknown. Read and be curious.”

Nick Williams, author of eight books including

The Work We Were Born To Do

“We’re most comfortable and confident as leaders when the issues we face are within our level of competence; we are much less so in the unchartered waters beyond the edge of our competence. The complex and chaotic nature of our lives and work suggest that leaders will increasingly face more ‘unknowns’ than ‘knowns.’ Indeed, the capacity to engage one’s self and others in addressing these unknowns may be the critical leadership success factor for the coming decade. This book is your valuable guide for that journey.”

Dr Barry Bales, Assistant Dean at the
Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs,
The University of Texas

“To a degree, certainty has always been a delusion, but no more so than today. Humans are wired to rush to solve instead of rush to discover. Paradoxically, if we are to solve the 21st Century’s wicked problems, we need to embrace the unknown, to be comfortable with and appreciate it, even immerse ourselves in it, at the edges of the known. This is how we will gain insights, see opportunities, create innovations and develop relationships that lead us to the solutions. The stories in this book will give you the confidence to thrive in not knowing by learning how others have managed it. Perhaps you can add your story at the end.”

Deborah Mills-Scofield LLC, Brown University
Visiting Scholar and Partner at Glengary LLP

“The well written wisdom you will find here is hard to come by in our information obsessed world. Learn from the older tradition, and learn from D’Souza and Renner who could only say it so well because they both experienced it and also learned from it.”

Richard Rohr, OFM at the Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico

“This is a rare book that moves beyond oversimplifying the complexity and ambiguity facing organisations and surfaces an instinctive but dangerous truth; it is human not to know. Renner and D’Souza encourage us to work against our hardwiring to embrace Not Knowing as a way to thrive in uncertainty rather than retreat to the false security of easy answers.”

Andrew Stevens, Director, Executive Education at
The University of Adelaide

“The future belongs to the learners, not the knowers. Steven and Diana are master storytellers, taking us on a journey to the edge of curiosity – Not Knowing. The people you meet in this book will become your companions and inspiration along the way.”

Richard Leider, international bestselling author of The Power of Purpose, Repacking Your Bags, & Life Reimagined

“Being comfortable with leaning into your own Not Knowing is at the heart of all great leadership work today. The essence of leadership is about sensing, leaning into, and actualizing emerging future possibilities. D’Souza and Renner’s book gives you a highly fascinating account on the frontline of this new leadership work.”

Dr C Otto Scharmer, Senior Lecturer at MIT, author of Theory U and Founding Chair of the Presencing Institute

“Not Knowing is a critical skill needed by leaders to tackle the complex problems in society. D’Souza and Renner’s book gives readers the confidence to face the edges of their own expertise and to create new value by venturing into new territory.”

Carsten Sudhoff, Former Chief HR Officer at theWorld Economic Forum and Founder and CEO of Circular Society

“We yearn for certainty, but certainty can make us blind. Not Knowing reminds us that our knowledge may be illusion. This fascinating book is both reassuring (you don’t have to know everything to be effective) and challenging (the effective use of not knowing is a hard-won skill). But most of all, the vivid stories, so well chosen and told, offer inspiring examples of the unexpected ways Not Knowing can deepen our lives and even lead us where we need to go next.”

Betty Sue Flowers, Co-author of Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future and Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin

“Several decades ago, Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg reminded us that physics does not describe nature, but our current knowledge of nature. Yet, we often assume that our knowledge of the world and the world are the same. It is a dangerous assumption, as the recent financial crisis has shown. This book is a timely reminder that the map is not the territory and that all knowledge is partial and therefore provisional. We should learn to live with the uncertainty of “Not Knowing,” and act accordingly.”

Martin Gargiulo, Professor of Organizational
Behaviour at INSEAD