Know What You Don’t Know is ultimately a book about leadership—leadership in a moment when higher education faces pressures unlike anything in recent memory. Bart Caylor names these challenges with clarity and courage: the enrollment cliff that has arrived, the search cliff that is accelerating, the dramatic shifts in generational expectations, and the pervasive fragmentation of data systems that leaves institutions “data rich but insight poor.” He also addresses one of the most misunderstood forces shaping the sector—AI—and reframes it not as a threat or shortcut, but as a new form of “institutional electricity,” capable of accelerating human judgment and improving the quality of leadership decisions.
Caylor’s central message is both humbling and empowering: leaders don’t need to be marketing experts, but they do need enough literacy to ask better questions, challenge assumptions, and guide strategy with confidence. If leaders want to make the level of impact that is genuinely expected of them today, this literacy is no longer optional—it is foundational…This book is timely, insightful, and essential for anyone committed to leading with wisdom and courage.