The curiosity of a child, ask more questions.
It usually goes something like this, listening to NPR in the car, and from the back seat, I hear, “What are they talking about?”. Talking with my wife Laura and we hear,? “What are you saying?”.? Talking about some random topic (probably to myself!), I get the question, “Why Dad?”. I have no idea how many times Dylan has asked these questions, but I know it’s a lot, a million times, two million, it feels like that sometimes!?
Dylan is a four-and-a-half-year-old happy little boy who loves life and has an incredible curiosity. He has an insatiable thirst for knowledge. I would say all children do, but as we grow up, we lose it, lose curiosity. Why???
In Ireland, I did software development in college; one of the requirements for the course was a higher level of maths in secondary school (Americans, think High School) or an A or B at the lower level. I was never great at maths and was pretty chuffed to have got a B in my Leaving Cert (Americans think High School finals) in the lower level. I got into that course, and I vividly remember my first day in Applied Mathematics. Sweat pouring down my forehead, sinking into the chair. I had no idea what the lecturer was talking about. I felt so lost. Weeks went by, and I never asked one question, even though I had no clue what was going on. Why???
Eleven years ago, I moved to the US from Ireland with Microsoft to lead a project. In my first week here, I sat in a three-day conference on the project, listened, and never asked questions. I had so many ideas, so many things I wanted to ask, but I didn’t. Why?
In both examples above, I was afraid to “look stupid,” it feels silly for me to say that now, but that is precisely what it was. As we grow into adults, most of us lose the childlike curiosity, for some reason asking questions, we believe means we lack knowledge. Our inner chatter tells us not to ask the question; you’re going to look silly, everyone else already knows the answer……stay quiet. Does it sound familiar???
At Microsoft, Satya Nadella always talked about how we needed “to meet the unmet and unarticulated needs of customers.” I loved this, and for me, it symbolizes the change in the culture he wanted to drive at Microsoft. He no longer wanted a company of “know-it-alls”; he wanted it to be a place full of “learn-it-alls.”? At its simplest, how do you do become that? You ask questions, lots of them.?
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At Salesforce, Mark Benioff often talks about the beginner’s mind. This is taken from Zen Buddhism. What does it mean? It’s dropping our expectations and preconceived ideas about something and seeing things with an open mind, fresh eyes, just like a beginner. What do you do when you are starting something new, you ask questions? At least you should!??
Starting at Salesforce gave me a fantastic card to play; it gave me the new person card. I can ask questions freely as I’m not expected to know the answers. But here is the thing, the secret (it’s not a secret, it just took me a long time to figure it out), never lose this card, always be the new person, no matter how long you are in a role. Ask questions, seek to understand, be curious, be Dylan.?
Curiosity is the birthplace of creativity; it’s where all great innovation comes from.?
Most likely, this means you need to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Turn off the mute button and ask the question. You're choosing courage over comfort, and with that, you're growing.?
Leaders, it’s your job to create a culture whereby curiosity is one of the central tenets of your organization. Your teams need to feel ok asking anything;? you help make that culture by leading by example. Inspire others, ask questions, be curious, be Dylan!?
As a dad, I will be doing my best to encourage Dylan to stay curious and ask questions, as hard as it can be trying to answer them all sometimes!?
Building custom AI and Machine Learning models to scale and drive digital customer success
3 年I once was issued an award in one of my previous jobs. The hand-raised award. For asking too many questions. I think it was a little tongue and cheek but I felt really happy about it. I work with a LOT of smart people and I want to A) learn from them, and B) be able to contribute. And I can’t do that without raising my hand. As a leader I learned an even more important reason to raise my hand: others may be too afraid to do so. I’m asking for everyone, not just myself.
Educational Pathways & Partnerships; STEM Education & Learner Capabilities Specialist
3 年Ironically, schooling tends to shut down that curiosity!
Thank you for sharing this Bernard, I love this quote: " You're choosing courage over comfort, and with that, you're growing". As a new employee @ SF I feel encourage by your thoughts. I have my own small army of young curious minds (4 little kids ?? ) and what I learned is that when I fully engage with their constant pursuit of knowledge AKA millions of questions; I find myself learning through their curiosity. Their questions make me realize how much I take for granted and how little I know. But what I love about their question is that it makes me search for answers and it pushes me to learn more everyday. So to your point let's keep asking so that we can keep growing.
Director, Critical Incident Communications at Salesforce
3 年Interesting piece Bernard. We should all consider how we can create an environment where curiosity feels safe so it can become a powerful tool.
Managing Director @ Concentrix | Hi Tech Vertical | CX, Digital Transformation, Global Strategy, Leadership, Business Development, P&L, Innovation, Coaching
3 年Very nice and very true. Leaders should make this an integral part so that it not only helps the student (questioner) get the answers but also leads fellow colleagues to come up with ideas, suggestions and speak out if things can be done more efficiently or should be completely stopped. Like the way the parent answers a curious kid's questions the answers of the leaders to the questions of employees indicates the maturity of the organization.