Why get curious?

Welcome back to OUTSPOKEN where every two weeks we will explore questions (some new, some familiar) that require innovative thinking and community solutions. I am so excited that you’re here!?

If you would like to learn more about me and what I do, check out the Concrete Cardinal website, and don’t forget to subscribe!

I’ve always been a naturally curious person. Curiosity is an invitation. It has great potential. It can shake us out of the autopilot state that we find ourselves in sometimes.?

Growing up, my curiosity was celebrated by some, but certainly not all. It can be exhausting to be on the receiving end of unending questions. Even when I wasn’t brave enough to raise my hand in class for what I thought was a “stupid question,” I was determined to do my own digging and find the answers. My brain was busy and seemed to crave more. More explanation. More understanding. More information.?

As Francesca Gino says in her Harvard Business Review article, The Business Case for Curiosity, “ When we demonstrate curiosity about others by asking questions, people like us more and view us as more competent, and the heightened trust makes our relationships more interesting and intimate. By asking questions, we promote more-meaningful connections and more-creative outcomes.” We show that we care and that we are invested in each other’s well being.?

This applies to both our personal and professional lives. Gino goes on to say, “When leaders concede that they don’t have the answer to a question, they show that they value the process of looking for answers and motivate others to explore as well.” She says, “When we are curious, we view tough situations more creatively.” Rather than panicking and becoming stressed, we’re able to think and collaborate more effectively.

Bill Taylor provides a great example of curiosity leading to exciting solutions in his Harvard Business Review article To Find Creative Solutions, Look Outside Your Industry. When London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children faced challenges transferring patients from one complex medical procedure to the next, “Dr. Martin Elliot, head of cardiac surgery, and Dr. Allan Goldman, head of pediatric intensive care, studied high-powered professionals from a totally unrelated field who were better than anyone at organizing handoffs — the pit crew of Ferrari’s Formula One racing team.” Someone got curious about how to reduce medical errors and followed the solution far away from their regular field, and to great success.?

In Todd B. Kashdan, David J. Disabato, Fallon R. Goodman, and Carl Naughton’s Harvard Business Review article, The Five Dimensions of Curiosity, they say, “curiosity propels us toward deeper engagement, superior performance, and more-meaningful goals.” They outline a five-dimensional model of curiosity:

1. Deprivation Sensitivity - recognizing a gap in knowledge, the filling of which offers relief. This type of curiosity doesn’t necessarily feel good, but people who experience it work relentlessly to solve problems.
2. Joyous Exploration - being consumed with wonder about the fascinating features of the world. This is a pleasurable state; people in it seem to possess a joie de vivre.
3. Social Curiosity - talking, listening, and observing others to learn what they are thinking and doing. Human beings are inherently social animals, and the most effective and efficient way to determine whether someone is friend or foe is to gain information.
4. Stress Tolerance - a willingness to accept and even harness the anxiety associated with novelty. People lacking this ability see information gaps, experience wonder, and are interested in others but are unlikely to step forward and explore.
5. Thrill Seeking - being willing to take physical, social, and financial risks to acquire varied, complex, and intense experiences. For people with this capacity, the anxiety of confronting novelty is something to be amplified, not reduced.

They argue that instead of asking, “How curious are you?” we can ask, “How are you curious?” When we’re able to break down the different types of curiosity, we can find balance between understimulation and overstimulation.?

This is a necessary balance. As Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Andrew Roscoe, and Kentaro Aramaki break down in their Harvard Business Review article, From Curious to Competent, curiosity alone isn’t enough. Taking the leap from curious to competent requires development. When curious people are given the opportunity to leverage their curiosity, “they shine.” When they aren’t, “they either stagnate or jump ship.” It’s important to get curious about whether or not your employees are stimulated. What can you do to encourage curiosity in the workplace?

Curiosity fuels innovation. In fact, Concrete Cardinal is built on curiosity. We’re constantly asking questions. What do communities need to thrive? How can we better connect with each other? What is the social impact of the environments that we build for ourselves??

And what happens when we place a gendered lens on curiosity? Just look at some of our earliest stories. Eve’s curiosity and her decision to give into temptation got both her and Adam kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Pandora just had to open her box, releasing all kinds of curses onto mankind. The message: women should not be trusted. They are curious to a fault. They should stick to themselves and do what men say.

How has this impacted women today?

Aside from having our curiosity outright discouraged, Andrea Janzen says in her Forbes article, Curiosity Is The Secret Weapon For Closing The Gender Gap, “The glass ceiling is actually a myth; women face barriers from the very start of their careers.” She says we’ve seen a lot of programs “focused on changing women’s behaviors, but they haven’t been accelerating women into leadership roles. The reason is that the gender gap is not a women’s issue—it’s a cultural issue.” Janzen also says that “women are groomed for leadership differently than men. Women are mentored and given advice, and men are sponsored and given opportunities. Men naturally get invited into these social structures, and women are unintentionally left out.”

Janzen argues that the issue isn’t that women aren’t curious, but that organizations should be curious about how and why the gender gap exists in the workplace. She provides three things you can do right now:

1. Look at your numbers. Just do it in your notebook. Start with one department. What is the percentage of women at entry level? The first level of leadership? The second? Don’t feel bad about what you find out; just get curious.
2. Look for where women are falling off. Compare this to the average. This can help you figure out where to focus first.
3. Look at the culture in your organization. How are decisions made? How are people groomed for leadership??

When Sally Percy asked eight female leaders for “words of wisdom they’d give to their younger selves” in her Forbes article, “Be Curious And Think Differently”–What Female Leaders Would Tell Their Younger Selves, the first piece of advice was, “Don’t lose your curiosity.”?

What I know for sure now, is not to be afraid to raise my hand. Experience has taught me that it’s not the least intelligent people that ask questions, but rather the most intelligent. They’re the people not afraid to say “I don’t know.”? They’re the people not trying to appear smarter than they are, or to be something that they’re not.?

You’ll often even find that when you ask questions out loud, you’re doing others a favour, too, because they also don’t know. So my advice is not to worry about being annoying, appearing incompetent, or questioning authority. In some cases, you may even be adding work to people’s plates, as I’ve been known to do.?

I have a commitment to myself to never sign anything I don’t fully understand. I have mandatory criteria that a concise, clear summary is attached to anything requiring my signature, acknowledgment or authorization. If I don’t understand it, I send it back. You can imagine how much people love this. IT DOES NOT MATTER. It’s the right and the smart thing to do. So raise your hand.?

We need curiosity to thrive, innovate, and create more inclusive workplaces. It’s okay to question and challenge other people. It’s okay to question and challenge ourselves. Think of it as an opportunity to learn. Get curious!

Thank you so much for returning to OUTSPOKEN. Don’t forget to subscribe.

As always, you can find more information here, or you can contact me at [email protected]. If you’d like to connect on social media, I’m active here on LinkedIn, or you can check out Concrete Cardinal on Instagram or TikTok: @concretecardinal.