Increase Curiosity

In many ways, most of us desire to be known. Perhaps you don’t want to be famous, but I’m willing to bet that you want to be known by the people you love and care about the most. Whether it’s by the world or the people in our world, most of us have a yearning to be the point of interest of others. This means we will place ourselves on display so that those people can learn of us and develop a library of context about what we do and who we are. Indeed, we place ourselves on a proverbial pedestal and allow ourselves to be admired. Juxtapose that reality with the life of Albert Einstein who quipped in 1952:

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

Many of us desire for others to be curious about us, but Einstein developed through a passionate curiosity curated for others and other things. He described it as not being special, and while I appreciate his humility, I’m not sure it isn’t special and rare.

The research of Paul Silvia at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro suggests that interest starts with curiosity, but then leads to fascination, then absorption, but eventually becomes enrapture. But curiosity is lost as the state of “flow” increases. It becomes more about the feeling of euphoria while in “flow” than the beginning stages of what brought one to the state of flow or enrapture in the first place. Curiosity.

Heather Zempel, author of Community is Messy, stated in an interview “Limitations breed creativity.” The limits that allow for creativity are due to the curiosity in the questions “why” and “how.” This idea of limitation is fascinating. What if we were to limit the process of moving from interest to enrapture and remain at curiosity and interest? What if the answer to “why” and “how” leads to more “why” and “how” questions? This is how we should approach our Multi Generational team (MGT) environment. More why, more how, more curiosity, more interest. Less desire to be known, less enrapture, less euphoria.

The first step to increasing curiosity is to turn down the volume on self. While self-improvement, self-actualization, and self-care are all good and needed, too much self turns our attention toward feeding self, a subject we are vastly competent on, a subject we are not curious about. As the dial goes down on self, raise the bar on the why and how questions. It’s okay if those questions start with self. Eventually, curiosity that starts with you will lead to things outside of you, for none of us are truly self-made. Somebody or something somewhere was a part of your development and reason for being. And it’s that kind of thinking that will draw you to question those in your MGT environment about why they are the way they are and how things got to be that way. Allow your limited understanding of your MGT to fuel and increase your curiosity.

Here are some helpful reminders on your journey:

Make Curiosity a Value - Reward questions that challenge people to ponder what they are doing or why they are doing. Ensure this evaluation process doesn’t become personal mistrust. Rather, ensure it remains focused on the goal of the team.

Encourage Problem-Solving - Never sweep a problem under the rug. See problems as an opportunity to engage your team and invite diverse thoughts to the team. Problem-solving increases cohesiveness and curiosity will invite more problems. Embrace them.

Analyze Your Environment - Just look around and start asking why things are the way they are. You may learn things about yourself and the people you are with just by taking a deeper look at the team culture and synergy you are in.

Give Curiosity Permission- Research shows that 7 of 10 face barriers to asking more questions at work. Less than a quarter of people feel curious at work. Open the door by asking what people are thinking about in safe ways.