Compulsive Curiosity: The Power of Redefining What’s Possible

Venturing into the unknown is almost always a scary thing for people in business. We’re talking about mystery and the road not taken, after all.

However hard as it may seem right now to imagine, what if you could feel comfortable in your skin to become a native of this land of the unknown? Could you enjoy a feeling of wonder and excitement about what the future holds?

This is at the heart of what Frederik Pferdt, Google’s first Chief Innovation Evangelist, calls “compulsive curiosity.”

Curiosity is one of the key principles for developing a “future-ready mindstate,” as defined by Pferdt in his highly inspirational and actionable read, “What’s Next Is Now: How To Life Future Ready.”

He calls for accepting the present and seeking new ways to shape the future. In doing so, each discovery makes you bolder and more inquisitive, creating pathways to opportunity that didn’t exist before.

I’d like to use the principle of curiosity when you try to get somebody to think differently beyond what is comfortable.

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Enter The Realm of the Possible

Let’s think of significant events that can impact a business: Mergers. Acquisitions. Succession. Reorganization.

All of these and then some can bring a great deal of stress your way. Perhaps everything will work out for the best, but there are no guarantees.

Still, before we assume what the future will be, in a moment of curiosity, ask yourself: What’s possible at this point?

Consider the pros and cons of the scenarios.

What actions can you take to control your destiny?

What actions magnify your risk?

What are the potential pitfalls?

What are all the conditions you need to think about – financial and otherwise?

Regardless of your direction, this isn’t a time to say, “That’ll never work.” Don’t rule anything out before you have to. Just answer the question: Is this possible?

Curiosity can steer you toward evaluating your possibilities more closely rather than making rash decisions in the next five minutes.

So, take a day or two to let each question you’ve pondered marinate in your thought process. For each one, ask the question: Is this possible?

Chances are, what you’re evaluating is no small commitment to be made. This is where visualizing events can be beneficial as you identify what’s possible and what’s not. If you don’t think far enough ahead or all the variations of that direction you could be taking, you may experience grave challenges when you’re too far down the road to change course.

On the note of changing course, ask yourself: “What happens if we go down Path A and want to make a change? Are we locked into this path forever? Or just for a certain period?”

If you need to change, is there a Path B to take if you need to? I’m not a fan of Cortez’s “Burn the Boats” strategy.

Building in a substantial amount of flexibility as you're compulsively curious provides the comfort of knowing that just because you’ve chosen one path doesn’t mean that’s the direction you’ll pursue indefinitely. ?

The “Upside Down” Question

What follows this thought process around different paths is a series of “Upside Down” Questions – questions that illuminate how situations could be made worse than they currently are.

The point? So often, we focus on the positives of what we can do better, but in doing so, we’re not genuinely drilling down on the root cause of the problem.

If we turn the tables and consider what would make things worse, we see the issue that needs to be addressed with much greater clarity.

What can we do to decrease sales? The answer here might point to why your sales aren't going up because you’ve done some of these things that are decreasing sales but never shined a light on them.

What could I do to make this relationship worse? You could not call on customers for 30 days or more. You could assume everything’s OK with their businesses. What if you’re doing that now? Uh oh. Come to think of it, when was the last time you met with each of your clients? Did one fall through the cracks? That’s a reality that needs prompt correcting, doesn’t it?

How can we lose our market share to our main competitor? You could do nothing. What will be the consequences if nothing changes and no action is taken? Think it through. What’s the chain reaction of events that will result from doing nothing? You may be doing nothing in one or two critical areas and headed down a road you don’t want to be on.

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Curiosity Brings The Self-Awareness To Change

Compulsive curiosity can also help you look at things from a different perspective on topics where you may have longstanding disagreements.

If you’re presented with other ideas that challenge your beliefs, you may dig in even harder and say, “I know what I believe. I won’t ever listen to anybody that says something differently.”

Without realizing it, you’re closing your mind to sources that might challenge you and in doing so, you’re revealing a weakness. You don’t have to agree with people, but you should understand and respect their differences, right?

?By being curious and becoming aware of how your beliefs are being shaped, you may be much closer to the change you want to make than you think.

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Curiosity Isn’t Daydreaming

Curiosity can lead us to ideas where we can make the greatest impact on a company.

You may be spending significant time in many areas of your business but not providing the most outstanding value. Is that really where you should be and does that match up in alignment with your business’ goals and values?

If not, why is that? How do you correct that to help the company live up to its value proposition?

As you're accumulating ideas on what’s possible, you can begin to consider the nuts and bolts of each idea to put together to make specific directions work well.

This “drilling down” will help determine the viability of your direction and if and when you can make it happen sometime soon.

Now that you have some intriguing paths forward, how will you use experimentation to make certain initiatives a reality while balancing some risks?

If you’re curious about the activities that may be the most impactful for your business, talk to Fairview Financial Advisors about receiving a Value Opportunity Profile? (VOP?).

This proprietary product of Corporate Value Metrics can reveal the levers with the greatest opportunity for management to impact value in planning, leadership, people, sales, marketing, operations, finance and legal. It’s a “Fair View” like no other for turning your curiosity into a more intelligent action plan.