Have you ever been in a meeting where someone makes a questionable comment — and all it takes is a single glance across the table to know you’re not the only one who caught it? Or maybe you’ve seen a brand take a cheeky jab at a competitor and instantly understood what they were really saying.

Those tiny moments of shared understanding feel effortless, but they’re built on something surprisingly complex: common knowledge — what we all know that everyone else knows.

On the latest episode of Visiting Experts, Harvard professor Steven Pinker to talk about his new book When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... He explores why common knowledge matters far more than we think, especially in business. From negotiations to marketing to everyday communication, shared understanding shapes how decisions get made, how trust forms and how work actually gets done.

Three takeaways from the episode include:

• Common knowledge powers communication. Business and personal interactions depend not just on what you say, but on what everyone understands you’re saying — even when it’s not spoken aloud. That’s why innuendo, tact and subtle cues carry so much weight. You may never hear "Netflix and chill" the same way again. 
• Shared understanding drives business outcomes. Negotiations, advertisements, speculative bubbles and even bank runs hinge on what people believe others believe. When everyone thinks everyone else is acting a certain way, behaviour cascades. 
• Remote and digital work weaken common knowledge. Without physical cues — the glance, the blush, the collective reaction — it’s harder to read the room. Information silos and digital bubbles fracture shared understanding and make alignment more difficult. How we move forward, however, still isn't known. 

New episodes of Rotman Visiting Experts are released monthly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon. Desktop listeners can also tune in on Simplecast.

Prefer to read than listen? Access the full transcript on Simplecast. 

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