What good are the “Answers” that have no “Questions”? Time to build a Culture of Curiosity!

 “Judge a man by his Questions rather than by his Answers”

   Said the Great Philosopher Voltaire.

But obviously that is Voltaire’s wisdom and in reality we do not get much opportunity to judge people by their questions, especially in office/work environments.

Millions of “question less workstations”, “curiosity less meeting rooms” and “indifferent corridors” dot the buildings of many organizations. It is not that there is silence, one can hear the sound of celebrations, reprimands, appreciation, laughter, crying and even gossip, but barely any sound of deep, reflective, investigative, skeptic, scientific, clever Questions?

Where are these Questions? Where is the much famed Human Curiosity? How will we take the next big leap without it?

We must build a culture of curiosity, says the well-meaning business leader! But “How do we do that?” exclaims another.

Let’s begin first by digging some underlying reasons that impede curiosity at organizations?

Reason No 1: The Questioning of Questions

Police asks questions to the accused, Teachers give tests to students, Interviewers interrogate the job seekers, and Bosses regularly grill employees with their questions. Just about all around us, it seems the job of asking questions is a sole preserve of people who have authority.

School is perhaps a place where most people first encounter a formal authority in their lives. As per a study that I stumbled upon, it says that a kid just before joining school asks 10-15 questions per hour, however this drops dramatically to only a small fraction of it in the same week he or she joins school.

I feel that this gets even worse as children grow. Over the years they are even directly or indirectly told that questioning a figure of formal or informal authority is equal to disrespecting that person. Bollywood movie screens are littered with scenes of angry shrieking fathers, screaming mothers, roaring police officers and yelling bosses saying just one thing- “How can you question me” or sometimes even adding that-“your questioning is an insult to me”.

This prevalent culture where “Questions” can even be interpreted as “disrespect”, quietly seeps into the work environment of various organizations. Despite top leadership of many progressive companies being genuinely committed to promote an environment of inquiry and openness, the deep rooted cultural paradigms impede their good intentions.  

Reason No 2: “Nothing” leads to “Nothing”

Socrates gave this paradox to Meno, a young inquisitive man in Ancient Greece-

“A Man cannot enquire either about that which he knows, or about that which he does not know; for if he knows, he has no need to enquire; and if not, he cannot; for he does not know the, very subject about which he is to enquire”

A paradox indeed. However, I don’t think with this paradox, Socrates is indicating the futility in curiosity.  But it certainly indicates that to be curious about anything, we must know at least something about it already.

If we don’t even encounter a topic, event or phenomenon, how will we ever be curious about it? 

A system or environment that enables exposure in a very narrow range of topics or domains will miss to draw the best from their people who never discovered their interests and remain ambivalent, indifferent, incurious and just surviving not thriving on millions of work stations at organizations all over the World.

Reason No 3 – The Complexity Complex!

One of the greatest painter & polymath of all times, Leonardo da Vinci’s curiosity towards human anatomy to create the most authentic art, took him to sit for days dissecting human corpses. However, it does not mean that everyone interested in art, has to study this level of complexity and emulate Leonardo and dissect corpses.

A large no of people could get interested in a subject or topic. However, as per some well acclaimed studies, their curiosity will start to wane at different levels of complexity. Some will hold their curiosity only till a low level and others might persist with interest till they reach higher levels of complexity. But, it is important to remember that there is value in learning at each different level. A system that is designed to teach only those who are willing to go to the highest level of complexity will miss out the potential value generated  by teaching a broader audience interested in the subject. Why shouldn’t your Financial Accountant Executive do a course in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning? And why shouldn’t your software developer attend a course in Micro Economics? Time to Ponder!

Reason No 4 – Curiosity of the Thumb!

The popular culture of restless fingers and thumbs moving feverishly and constantly on shiny touch screens of smart phones to seek something novel to avoid boredom is also considered a type of curiosity. However, this form of curiosity is similar to continuous craving felt by an obese person, who constantly feels the need to get his or her fix of sugar, oil and salt and not necessarily get any real nutrition in the process.

Prof Daniel Berlyne, a leading researcher on the topic for curiosity calls this type of curiosity as diversive curiosity. It is technically possible that people who indulge in this constant purposeless browsing also by luck hit an area where they might develop deeper interest and draw significant long term value. However for most people, it does not lead to any substantial value except minds that get addicted to quick skimming, watching and irresponsibly sharing heaps of trivia designed to get their attention. This addiction can sometime even cause disdain and repulsion towards deep and authentic curiosity and learning. 

Three Ideas to build a Culture of Curiosity

Idea No 1: The Next “Renaissance” – Questions should be the New KPI

I think, it was the famous historian Yuval Noah Harari, who quoted this example -

“Imagine if a man begins his sleep in 910 AD and wakes up in 1410 AD, he will find a world that is more or less the way it was when he first fell asleep. However, if he decides to sleep again in 1410 AD and wake up in 2010 AD, he will feel as if he has reached an alien planet or some fantasy land. He might see the I-phone too. Be it modes of transportation, communication, housing, occupations, just about everything would be in a form unrecognizable to him". 

But why did that happen? What was so different between the 600 years period spanning 910AD to 1410AD and the 600 years period from 1410AD to 2010 AD. Yuval Noah Harari, argues that the primary thing that changed was the break in the deep rooted belief that “Only what Ancients knew was the ultimate truth”. The culture of fearless curiosity and bold questions was born and the scientific and cultural revolution it ushered in is all around for us to see.

While organizations are not fighting the dark ages, but the job of encouraging their people to break away from the belief that – “Questions are the sole preserve of the people in authority” is also extremely tough. However, I think a serious dent can be made on this problem by leveraging the following two traits of most people which are:-

·      People work more on things that they are recognized for

·      People normally wish that their boss have a favorable view of them.

Mangers will need to communicate firmly to their team members that not asking him/her questions in a meeting will be a sign of disrespect and indifference. The meetings conducted my manager should celebrate deep probing questions and should mourn not having any deep questions. The system should Make Questions the New KPI (Key Performance Indicator) with a weight accorded that sends the message that the next Renaissance is here.

Of course, the implementation of such an idea presented here at only a skeletal level needs to be fleshed out and would require a sincere effort at the level of every team in the organization.

Idea No 2 – Sample this delicious piece of Honey Glazed Python!

I think there is a lot that the L&D can learn from the marketers of the FMCG industry. One of the lessons would be about -how to get a population to consume what they are completely unfamiliar with?  

Many food items that we today consume by the tons were not even known many years ago. There are great stories behind how samples were distributed with sometime even incentives to get consumers to try something for the first time. From the days when even the now ubiquitous Tea was unknown in India and several other FMCG items like beverages, washing powders, toothpastes and many more owe their success to smart sampling. 

We know that to pique the interest of people into a topic, it is essential that they know at least something about it. Would you like to consider sampling drives of learning bytes at your organization?

Organizations, who regularly do competency mapping of roles on all the important knowledge, skills and attitudes will find it easier to implement such sampling drives. They can ascertain the existing level of awareness about the topics and areas that are a must to learn to fill competency gaps across roles and career paths. For all areas where they find the existing level of awareness is low, they can run sampling drives on various target employee groups. However, to do it successfully, we must ensure the following –

·      Learning bytes should be delicious (you know what I mean), remember a car that does not drive well should not offer test drives.

·      Communication should be alluring and comparable in many ways with FMCG marketing minus the FMCG media spends.

Idea No 3: Gag that Subject Matter Expert!

It is normal that Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) are given the responsibility to set the curriculum of any programme. However, it is often seen that an SME’s own deep interest in the subject compels him/her to set up a level of coverage and complexity that may not be needed for most targeted learners.

It is also seen that many a times the L&D succumbs to SME’s out of reverence towards their knowledge of the subject and assuming that they know the best. Curriculum that is wider and deeper than what is really required intimidates and dampens curiosity of learners who are not keen to learn a topic/subject till high levels of complexity.

Since, different people will see their curiosity wane at different levels of complexity, it is a must that L&D should actively and firmly engage with SMEs and offer learning paths that have many meaningful exit points. Remember every one interested in Art may not like to dissect corpses like Leonardo da Vinci.

Hope the reasons that impede curiosity and some ideas that can help build a culture of curiosity in organizations presented here resonated with you. So, what do you plan to do next to build or boost a culture of curiosity at your organisations or in your own team? I remain curious!