Ashish KothariMake flourishing your competitive edge

Can saying "I don't know" actually make your team move faster?

18 Apr 2026 · 0 min

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Ashish Kothari argues teams move faster when people admit what they don't know and acknowledge mistakes openly. He recommends three practices: saying "I don't know" to surface gaps, saying "I made a mistake" to build trust, and stepping back to remind the team why it exists. These habits create what he calls systemic learning, a feedback loop that turns individual humility into collective speed.

Try this, try these practices to be coherent. Show up saying, I don't know. Show up saying, I made a mistake. Here's what I learned. Tune into what, Jack, you're highlighting is step back for a moment and say, what's our higher purpose? Where are we going? And practice these. And I promise you, you will start to move fast. Couldn't agree more. So I want to go next into once you start to do that, you can start to unlock your third element that you highlight, which is systemic learning.