Adam Grant spent a lot of time rethinking education.
However the moment that truly changed his perspective came over a dozen years ago when he met sociologist Wayne Baker and his wife, Cheryl, an entrepreneur.
They had noticed a peculiar problem in classrooms and communities alike—people eager to help and people in need of help often failed to connect.
Their solution was a deceptively simple group exercise they called the Reciprocity Ring.
The idea was straightforward:
Gather a group of people, ask everyone to make a request for something they needed but couldn’t accomplish alone, and then challenge the group to use their collective knowledge and networks to fulfill the requests.
It was a way to break down barriers, unlocking the hidden potential of collaboration.
The Unlikely Magic of a Classroom Exercise
One early story from the Reciprocity Ring stayed with Adam.
A student shared that his lifelong dream was to see a Bengal tiger in the wild.
It seemed like an impossible ask—no one in the room had ever even set foot on a continent where that was feasible.
Yet, a few people offered connections, and within a month, the student was on a plane to fulfill his dream.
That story planted a seed.
Adam decided to bring the exercise into his Wharton classroom, hoping to encourage students to seek and offer help more freely.
It didn’t take long for the experiment to yield surprising results.
One of the most memorable requests came from Alex, a student with a passion for roller coasters.
He stood up and declared his dream: to work at Six Flags, a company he described as “roller coaster nirvana.”
The problem?
Six Flags didn’t recruit from Wharton.
Adam was skeptical that the room of 20-somethings could help.
But then, a few students offered simple favors—connections, emails, and phone calls.
Weeks later, Alex walked into class grinning ear to ear.
He’d spoken with the former CEO of Six Flags.
The surprising twist?
Alex realized he didn’t want to work in the amusement park industry after all.
What seemed like a dead end became a moment of clarity, allowing Alex to move forward with new confidence.
The Fear of Asking- and the Bridges We Miss
These stories reshaped Adam’s understanding of the barriers that keep people from asking for help.
Many of us resist asking because we fear looking vulnerable or incompetent.
We rely on our strongest ties—the people we know and trust—but those ties often lead to the same solutions we’ve already considered.
By contrast, weaker ties—acquaintances and casual connections—introduce fresh perspectives and unexpected opportunities.
The Reciprocity Ring flipped that dynamic.
It normalized asking for help, fostering a culture of generosity where students felt safe making requests and empowered to fulfill them.
But Adam noticed another challenge: many students arrived at Wharton believing that success was a zero-sum game.
Helping a classmate could feel like sabotaging their own achievements.
Rethinking Incentives: Collaboration Over Competition
To tackle this mindset, Adam reimagined how he graded his students.
He eliminated downward curves and introduced upward ones: the highest scorer in the class could raise everyone else’s grades.
He also added an unusual twist to the final exam.
On one multiple-choice question, students could name a classmate they believed knew the correct answer.
If that classmate got it right, both earned the points.
The impact was immediate.
Students formed study groups, dividing topics and pooling their knowledge.
They didn’t just improve their test scores—they learned more deeply by teaching each other.
It wasn’t about the extra points; it was about removing the disincentive to collaborate.
Once competition was no longer a barrier, students discovered how much they could gain by working together.
Creating a Culture of Rethinking
As Adam reflected on these experiments, he realized they pointed to something larger:
Education isn’t just about transferring knowledge.
It’s about fostering curiosity and teaching students to challenge their own assumptions.
Inspired by feedback from his students, Adam introduced an assignment that required them to question the principles taught in his course.
They worked in pairs to create mini TED Talks or podcasts, using evidence to challenge the course’s core ideas.
The creativity and depth of their work floored him.
One group even gave a TED Talk on the problems with TED Talks.
It was a moment that underscored the value of encouraging students to rethink—not just accept—what they were learning.
Adapting to a New World: Lessons from a Virtual Classroom
When the pandemic pushed teaching online, Adam worried that these exercises would lose their magic.
But something surprising happened.
He invited alumni to join an online Reciprocity Ring, and 150 of them—nearly double the size of his class—showed up to help current students.
The students were stunned by the generosity of strangers, and the alumni were equally inspired by the chance to contribute.
Even in the constraints of a virtual classroom, Adam found new ways to encourage rethinking and collaboration.
He introduced hashtags in the Zoom chat—#question for inquiries, #onfire for urgent contributions, and #debate for dissenting opinions.
The chat window became a space for richer, more inclusive discussions, enabling students to challenge each other and Adam in ways that deepened their learning.
The Takeaway: The Courage to Ask
Adam’s experiences with the Reciprocity Ring, collaborative grading, and virtual teaching all point to the same lesson:
Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness—it’s an act of connection.
Whether in a classroom, workplace, or community, creating spaces where people feel safe to ask and offer help unlocks potential that might otherwise go untapped.
And the magic of asking?
It doesn’t just solve problems.
It builds bridges—bridges that connect us to new ideas, new opportunities, and each other.
This post was inspired by Adam Grant's video The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know.
