How Can Your Business See the Future and Ignite Innovation?
By using a trusty tarot card reader…or something else*?
A few months ago, I was unpacking a box that I had neglect since we moved two years ago. In it I found a decade-old fortune given to me and my husband by an old tarot card reader in a candle-scented parlor off Bourbon Street.
If I flexed my brain just so, I could make out the remote possibility that one of the eleven predictions she made had almost come true: at least some sort of life change had occurred over the last decade. I suppose if she had suggested that we invest in Netflix when it was mailing us DVDs of The Hangover and Avatar, I would have been skeptical then, and impressed (and regretful) now.
I’m trying to remember the last time that I was as completely wrong as our Cajun tarot card reader. It’s not easy because it seems infinitely easier to identify times that I was right and times that I was mostly right… except for a few minor things that I couldn’t have possibly foreseen.
With our unprecedented access to information, it seems like there should be fewer things than ever that are unforeseen. But, this access changes how we see things – it amplifies the illusion of certainty. This is why it’s hard to remember when we’re wrong. The problem is, the more certain we feel, the more likely we are to be wrong…and not see it. This is why curiosity is more important now than ever before.
In your daily life, you may or may not decide that it’s important to embrace curiosity – to swap inquiry for certainty in order to slither closer to the truth.
However, it is clear from the latest research that business success depends on it.
“No business can afford to ignore the power of curiosity in the workplace.”
– Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Excecutive Board and CEO of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
What about curiosity in the workplace?
Great question and good news because the most comprehensive study of curiosity in the workplace was recently concluded by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a company that has celebrated curiosity for 350 years.
As Founder and Chief Curiosity Seeker at Applied Curiosity Lab, and as a sponsor of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s #alwayscurious initiative, I found the following results of this study most fascinating.
The results are in. Here’s your Q&A.
How was curiosity defined? What was measured?**
- Joyous Exploration
- Gaining pleasure from recognizing and seeking new knowledge and information
- Deprivation Sensitivity
- Recognizing a gap in knowledge and pondering complex ideas to reduce the gap and solve problems
- Openness to People’s Ideas
- Valuing diverse perspectives and seeking out different approaches
- Stress Tolerance
- Willingness to embrace discomfort from uncertainty.
**Ask me how these relate to our Curiosity Archetypes.
Are there differences between countries?
(Germany, USA, and China)
Yes.
- Germany had the highest curiosity score, followed by the USA, and then China.
- China scored lowest on Openness to People’s Ideas.
- USA score lowest on Stress Tolerance.
- In all three countries, the most challenging curiosity dimension was Stress Tolerance. This is closely related to the Curiosity Killer, fear of failure.
What are the main barriers to curiosity?***
- Heavy top-down structures
- Lack of cross-pollination, exchange, and collaboration between teams and departments
- Heavy surveillance by management and lack of autonomy
***aka Curiosity Killers.
Are there generational differences?
Yes.
- Generation Z had the lowest scores in Deprivation Sensitivity and Stress Tolerance. It’s true. The youngest generation had the lowest overall Employee Curiosity Index score.
- Millennials scored highest in Deprivation Sensitivity, Joyous Exploration, and Stress Tolerance. This generation registered the overall highest Employee Curiosity Index score.
- Generation X had the second highest overall score.
- Baby boomers scored the lowest in Joyous Exploration and the highest in Openness to People’s Ideas.
Interesting aside: Millennials are consistently more positive about investing in curiosity to drive innovation. Let’s listen to the millennials! (At least on this issue).
Do Employee Curiosity Index scores differ by industry?
Yes.
Here’s the order from highest to lowest score.
- Scientific R&D
- Technology
- Manufacturing
- Healthcare
- Public Administration
The good news: with the right training curiosity levels can improve…in every industry and sector.
Does size matter?
Yes.
The more employees an organization has, the greater the perceived support for curiosity and the greater the correlation between curiosity and innovation. Come on, start-ups!
However, the larger the organization the greater the curiosity killers like lack of time for curiosity, less autonomy, and fewer opportunities for cross-pollination.
Does curiosity at work just happen?
No.
Curiosity matters. A lot. But it doesn’t happen automatically. Only the proper training can create a shift in the way we attract the curious, retain the curious, and create and ignite the curious. At Applied Curiosity Lab, that’s what we do.
Andreas Steinle, Managing Director of Zukunftsinstitut Workshop & Curiosity Council Member said it well:
“For companies to tap into their full potential, they don’t need new technologies, but a new culture of working. A culture of togetherness, where people build on the ideas of others. A culture of openness, where it’s more important to ask questions than to give answers. In short: a culture of curiosity. The CEO of the future is thus a Curiosity Enhancing Officer.”
The future is uncertain, and neither our unprecedented access to information nor an engaging tarot card reader will entirely change that. The curiosity that allows us to embrace this uncertainty, recognize gaps in our knowledge, seek new knowledge (even when it challenges our world-view), and value diverse perspectives and approaches is critical for business success. But, if you read between the lines this study reveals, that curiosity is also a tool that you can use in every aspect of your life.
*Sponsored by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.