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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Unleash your inner curiosity to experience a new world of meaning and opportunity
Curiosity: The Secret Ingredient for Success in Personal and Professional Growth describes the ins and outs of curiosity: what it is, how it works and what it does; how it influences success for individuals and organisations, why it is hard to maintain over time and how we – and our organisations - can get (even) better at it. The book is a practical guide for professionals to help them become aware of and take intentional action towards being more curious towards the world, others and even themselves.
With curiosity gaining traction in the business world as a new paradigm for being, relating and leading for the 21st century, Stefaan van Hooydonk’s deep dive into the very concept of curiosity has never been more timely. In this book, readers will learn about:
● Why curiosity is magical and complex—and far more than a simple one-dimensional word
● How curiosity drives innovation, continuous improvement, and employee engagement all at once
● The science of curiosity, drawing on insights from data and the latest research on this topic
A highly unique resource on one of the most influential concepts in business success and beyond, Curiosity earns a well-deserved spot on the bookshelves of professionals young and old, as well as HR, learning professionals, managers, and all individuals seeking to be a little more curious and unlock a new world of meaning and opportunity.
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Seitenzahl: 299
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Introduction
Why Curiosity, Why Now?
About This Book
Notes
Part 1 The Why and the What of Curiosity
Chapter 1 The Business Case for Curiosity
What Is Curiosity?
The Importance of Curiosity for Organizations
The Opposite of Curiosity
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 2 Neuroscience and Curiosity
Novelty and Coping Potential
Curiosity Is Rewarding: The Reward Pathway
Executive Control: Attention and Patience
Memory and Learning
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Part 2 The Success Formula of Curiosity
Chapter 3 Permission
Permission in the Workplace
The Power of Systemic Permission
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 4 Awareness
Paying Attention
Slowing Down
Four Reasons Why Awareness Is Hard
Forms of Conformity: Judgement and Bullshit
The Influence of Stress on Curiosity
Why Curiosity Declines Over Time
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 5 Intentionality
What Gives Us Energy?
“Big C” versus “Small c” Curiosity
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Part 3 The Three Dimensions of Curiosity
Chapter 6 Curiosity About the World Around Us
I-Type versus D-Type Curiosity
What Is Humanity Interested In?
Where to Start
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 7 Curiosity About Others
The Power of the Curious Conversation
Benefits of Empathic Curiosity
A Better Question
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 8 Curiosity About Self
Why It Is Hard to Explore Our Deeper Self
Stages of Self-reflection
The Lost Art of Introspection
Continuous Learning
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Part 4 Applying Curiosity
Chapter 9 “Why Don’t We Milk Pigs” or: The Power of Better Questions
The Benefits of Curiosity
Growing Up
Four Reasons We Don’t Ask Questions
The Power of Asking Deeper and Better Questions
What Can I Do to Be a Better ...
Can I Ask a Better Question?
What Are We Not Seeing in the Data?
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 10 Leadership and Curiosity
Curious Organizations Are Run by Curious Leaders
The Magic of the Underhand Free Throw
The Say/Do Ratio of Curiosity at Work
Leaders as Curiosity Role Models
Psychological Safety and Minority Viewpoints
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 11 Alchemy and AI
Robots Augmenting Humans
The Dark Side of Technology
Traditional versus Generative AI
Are We Getting Collectively Smarter With AI?
What Strategies Can Mortals Adopt?
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 12 Curiosity and Corporate Culture
Defining Organizational Cultures
Curiosity as a Catalyst for Success and Change
Curiosity as a Corporate Value
Operationalizing Curiosity into Processes and Practices
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 13 Curiosity and the Planet
A Natural Connection We Have Forgotten
Some People Just Do It and Show the Way
Vertical Farming
Giving in to Permission
Taking Small Positive Steps
Questions for Reflection
Notes
Chapter 14 Putting It All Together
Notes
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Introduction
Begin Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
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Curiosity
The secret ingredient for success in personal and professional growth
STEFAAN VAN HOOYDONK
This edition first published 2025
© 2025 John Wiley & Sons
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hooydonk, Stefaan van, author.
Title: Curiosity: The secret ingredient for success in personal and professional growth/ Stefaan van Hooydonk.
Identifiers: LCCN 2024040473 (print) | LCCN 2024040474 (ebook) | ISBN 9780857089809 (paperback) | ISBN 9780857089823 (ebook) | ISBN 9780857089816 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Curiosity. | Success in business.
Classification: LCC BF323.C8 H66 2025 (print) | LCC BF323.C8 (ebook) | DDC 650.1—dc23/eng/20241114
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024040473
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024040474
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Images: © john/Adobe Stock Photos; © amedeoemaja/Adobe Stock Photos
Dedication
I dedicate this book to you, the reader.Simply because you empower yourself to rock your world. You will find that the light shines brighter on the other side of the status quo.
Acknowledgements
Wow—where to start? First of all, I would like to say a huge thank you to all people who uplifted me during my entire life. Your big and small gestures of kindness made me the person I am today. Without you, I would be a lesser version of myself. Without you, this book would not be born.
Thank you so much to the growing group of fellows at the Curiosity Institute: Clare Inkster, Soren Meibom, Hilary Lichterman, Robert Danna, Laci Loew, and Alexandre Santille. Your energy, ideas, guidance, collaboration, and support mean the world for me. You help me grow. Thanks for your insights; they are nurturing the flame of curiosity throughout this book.
Thank you to all the leaders all around the world for inviting me to work with you. You are the early adopters of intentional curiosity. Thanks for your passion to baseline and benchmark curiosity in your departments and organization, to bring me in to inspire your (management) teams and to help them to activate curiosity. Your company cases, feedback and encouragement has given me purpose to go deep into the concept of curiosity. You will recognize them in this book.
This book would not be here without the incredibly rich conversations I’ve had with the wonderful people who graciously opened their schedules to be interviewed for the book. A big thank you to all those who allowed their stories and advice to be featured in this book, including Lynn Borton, Tasha Eurich, Steven Shepard, Yogesh Kumar, Jim Hamakiotis, Yury Boshyk, Rob Theunissen, Bilal Sununu, Marc Ramos, Cecile Cremer, Sharath Baburaj, Simon Brown, Teddy Frank, Luke Revell, Thom Crockett, René van Dormael, Mike Pino, and Claire Bown. This book is even more valuable and relatable because of your contributions.
I am grateful for the collaboration with the team at Wiley for all their help and support. This is my second book, and the team has always been on hand to support. Big thanks to Annie Knight, who encouraged me to write this book, Alice Hadaway to ensure smooth sailing through the process from idea to printing and Tom Dinse to review and provide guidance in the first manuscript.
Thank you so much to my parents, they introduced the path of curiosity to me early on. I remember this one time when they kept me out of school so they could take me to a Tutanchamun exhibition. I must have been 8 years old. Defiant acts like these showed me that permission for bending the rules to explore something new and meaningful is ok.
To my partner Jeltje Peletier, thank you for supporting me in every crazy thing I do (like write another book or invest in agricultural land to start a foodforest). You have the ability to get the best out of me with your gentle touch. You know when to give me space or when to lean in. You are the best friend I could wish for. I’m looking forward to writing our next chapter.
Finally, this book is for my children: Rik, Femke, Koen, and Menko. As you are getting launched in professional life, I am more and more convinced that “things” big and small must be done differently. We have come out of a twentieth century which created the mess we are currently in. The twenty-first century is different and requires new tools. Curiosity is probably the most important one of them. I am grateful that you have plenty of it, each in your own special way. The world is safe in the hands of people like you. I hope this book can provide some extra ideas.
About the Author
Stefaan van Hooydonk is founder of the Global Curiosity Institute and bestselling author of his first book: The Workplace Curiosity Manifesto. An experienced global C-suite executive, Stefaan held executive roles as Chief Learning Officer in Fortune 200 companies like Royal Philips, Cognizant, Saudi Aramco, Nokia and others. He consults global corporations and leadership teams towards building a stronger curiosity muscle. Stefaan researches the topic of workplace curiosity in companies. He believes that curious individuals need curious environments to thrive and that especially in times of turmoil individuals and companies need to embrace intentional curiosity. With the help of unique diagnostics, he creates insights on what drives and what enables individuals and organizations to show up curiously. He is a regular speaker around the world on the power of curiosity to benefit professionals, leaders, teams, and organizations.
Introduction
Trigger Question: do you consider yourself a curious professional?
In the present business landscape, the idea that curiosity is one of the key defining factors of success is popular and even obvious.
The headhunting company Egon Zehnder has settled on the concept of curiosity as the biggest predictor of executive success.
The World Economic Forum places curiosity in the top skills next to skills like analytical thinking, creativity, and agility.
1
Internal research by LinkedIn has found that there is a 90% growth in the use of the word “curiosity” in online job ads. If you want to recruit the best talent, use curiosity in your recruitment communication. Curiosity sells.
Leaders often consider themselves as having a great deal of curiosity, and more than the people around them. After all, their track record is better than others in sticking their neck out and exploring new possibilities.
Not so fast.
At the beginning (of relationships, start-ups, new projects) we are often open and humble, only to find ourselves sliding into a state where we stop asking important questions. We stop exploring. Over time, we settle for the status quo. When we find ourselves for too long in the same role, we don’t play to win anymore, we play-not-to-lose and hold on to the past.
Though curiosity is socially desirable, and many people associate themselves with being curious, most of us are more drawn to its opposite: conformity. We say we are curious, yet we often are quick to cast judgement on others rather than engage with curiosity, we comply with societal norms of what constitutes success rather than defining our own norms. For better or for worse, we as a species have a genius for getting used to things, especially when things are gradual and incremental.
It is impossible to calculate the wasted time and resources created by a conformist mindset. Phrases like “I/we always do it this way”, or “This is the way the company wants us to do things” prevents innovation from happening. It is just as hard to measure the emotional toll. Most of us go out of our way to remain conformist and not stick out our necks, denying ourselves new adventures, innovation, and small and large growth opportunities.
This book is about the magic curiosity can bring to our lives, teams, and organizations if we focus on it with intent. If we let it. We’ll explore together the three important prerequisites for curiosity to flourish: permission, awareness, and intentionality. Without them, curiosity diminishes over time.
We will also discuss the fact that curiosity is more complex than we often think. For instance, curiosity is more than a mere intellectual pursuit into the unknown. Curiosity is also about keeping our relationships healthy. Equally, curiosity helps us to go inwards and question our inner state of mind.
In this book, we will explore what makes curiosity so difficult to put into practice and maintain over time in our day-to-day lives and in the institutions we build.
It is also about how we can do better.
I not only study workplace curiosity for a living, I am also a recovering conformist. Though people say that I am a curious individual and professional, I am the first to say that I am a curiosity work-in-progress case. When faced with stress, I don’t take time to listen. When things go wrong, I try to blame others. When a lucrative project coincides with a planned holiday, I lean towards postponing the time off with my family. When I think I am not good at something, I put it off. The list goes on and on. To come to terms with my shortcomings, and to help you to do the same, I decided to research the power of curiosity.
Nearly everyone thinks or believes that curiosity is an individual trait, and in fact many people pride themselves that they are above average when it comes to curiosity. Indeed, curiosity—the intentional and self-aware variant—benefits the individual in many ways.
Based on my research and work with many professionals and organizations over the years, I have come to believe something counterintuitive: the real power of curiosity lies in its collective power. If we start supporting curiosity in our people and make it a collective trait of our organizations, we will create organizations that not only thrive in the present, but also future-proof themselves.
This book introduces an important new idea for all companies:
Make curiosity the organizing principle of management thinking and action.
In today’s environment of near constant revolution, a singular focus on the status quo risks implosion. The management consultant Gary Hamel has it right when he says: “Obedience, competence and diligence are commodities. Passion, initiative, creativity and curiosity is what companies need (and short in supply).”2
Only the curious companies, and managers, can find their way to the future.
I came to be interested in the power of workplace curiosity when I was responsible for a large transformation project for a global IT services company of 300,000 employees. I was the Chief Learning Officer. The company had been growing through global regional expansion. For every new customer, new resources were recruited. Given the rapid expansion of the company, rotating people across customers was part of the process. This approach had been a successful strategy when specialized resources (in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML)) were not readily available in the market, but required a radical change for the company—to also encourage the existing employees to upskill themselves and to actively support job mobility.
This new approach to balance hiring new employees with upskilling the existing workforce set in motion many changes. For instance, customer contracts needed to be renegotiated to allow for more workforce flexibility. Managers needed to allow for internal rotation of their best resources.
The biggest change, however, was in the learning and development of the 300,000 employees around the world. Not only did they need to keep their existing skills current (not an easy thing in the fast-moving world of IT), they also needed to think about what new job they aspired to and reskill themselves accordingly. The role of the learning and development department was to orchestrate and enable and also to communicate a new strategy and a new deal: namely that we were going to push fewer courses and less content, but empower every colleague to decide for themselves what new skills they fancied.
This new strategy was supported by the board and the CEO was glad to kick off the project. The initial response from the employees to our internal marketing efforts was excellent. Then it plateaued. A minority jumped at the opportunity of acquiring highly in-demand skills. The majority could not be bothered. Or so it seemed. Even though senior management gave permission, many employees had lost some of their childhood ability to tap into their curiosity.
Many leaders also lacked the skills to create curious workspaces. Realizing this, we trained people in the concept of curiosity. In online sessions, we trained people on the concept of neuroplasticity (aka your brain is agile and you can change, regardless of age), shared with them how to think about curiosity, what it is, how it works, and also what its barriers are. Checking in with people three months after the session with a simple survey inquiring how the concepts of the curiosity session still resonated, the majority indicated an increase in their desire to embrace novelty. This felt already good. The real insight came when we compared the training people who had followed the curiosity session with those who had not over a 12-month period after the session. What we found was that those who were exposed to the curiosity session had consumed twice as much training compared to colleagues who had not.
This pilot provided an important lesson: permission is the necessary starting point. Providing tools for people to change their behaviour comes second. Changing culture comes third.
After this project and training more than 15,000 people in the company, I left my cushy corporate job and set up the Curiosity Institute. I wanted to dive deeper into the concept of curiosity, especially how and why it influences individual and corporate success. I researched its complex nature and created tools to measure curiosity in individuals, and also in teams and organizations. I wrote a first bestselling book in 2021: The Workplace Curiosity Manifesto.
It was the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, so not an ideal time, you might think, to set up a new venture. But that turned out to be not really the case; things picked up really well. I have worked with 50-plus companies, have inspired more than 20,000 professionals with inspirational talks, have gathered data from over 10,000 professionals and 30 companies.
Why Curiosity, Why Now?
Since the dawn of time, humans have had a love–hate relationship with curiosity. On the one hand we celebrate people who stick out their necks and explore the world. The most obvious examples are our own children. They are born with an innate desire to learn. Curiosity enables them to make sense of the world, to learn how to interact with others, and learn about themselves.
On the other hand, curiosity also killed the cat. We frown upon people who ask difficult questions, who challenge the status quo. Most leaders demand obedience and conformity from their team. Even though they say they want to work with the best of the best, their actions often reveal that they prefer to lead people who are not challenging the status quo.
When I ask leaders whether curiosity is a good thing for an organization: 90% say yes. When I ask them whether they are inviting curiosity into their teams: only 52% agree. There is clearly a say/do gap. In theory they agree that curiosity is a good thing. In practice, they prefer that others are bold, not them. Saying something is not the same as doing it.
We allow individuals to be curious yet, when people form groups, we demand conformity. We embrace curiosity and at the same push it away as an unwelcome guest. Even the Bible frowns upon curiosity. Think about Eve trying to eat an apple from the tree of knowledge. We all know what happened.
I have dubbed the twenty-first century the “century of ideas”. For corporates, the twentieth century was the century of relative status quo, one where scale and scope was needed to be successful. Let’s compare two companies: the Marriott hotel group and Airbnb. Marriott took about 90 years to amass 700,000 beds in 90 countries. Airbnb reached the same scale in just four years—different philosophy and business model. If stock markets are an indication of value, Airbnb is 50% more valuable compared to Marriott.
The times when we could copy-and-paste last year’s strategy as a guide for the current year are over. The past is at best an advisor, at worst a detractor. The efficiency mantra we learned in business schools is still useful, yet the fast new business realities require leaders to learn a new skill: the skill to combine operational excellence with a humble openness to the future.
In my first book I focused on the power of intentional curiosity for professionals. I found that curious professionals progressed faster in their careers and made more money than their less curious peers. Curious professionals learn faster and more deeply, are more ready to embrace change, and are better at forming and maintaining relationships. They are also more self-aware.
Individual curiosity has many benefits yet, as mentioned, its ultimate value lies in its collective power. COVID-19 has been a testament to the remarkable power of collaboration to battle crises. Individuals cannot solve a crisis, but communities can.
The more leaders and corporations create conducive platforms for new ideas and their implementation, the more solutions—big and small—will see the light of day. Hopefully, these solutions will benefit not only the company, but also the community and the planet.
Another reason is that curious professionals need curious teams and curious managers. Those curious professionals who are not supported by a curious culture will either burn out, become conformist cogs in the system, or simply leave for more curious companies.
About This Book
This book is for anyone who sees her or himself as a force for good. The book is written especially for those people who want to reshape their team and ultimately their organization into a better version of itself.
Every chapter is filled with stories, frameworks, and useful information to deepen your depth of knowledge of curiosity. You will find every chapter starts with a quote. I encourage you to read the quote, even say it out loud and reflect on it for a moment. The quote is followed by a trigger question: a question you are invited to answer for yourself. To make the concepts of each chapter stick, I have included questions for reflection at the end of each chapter.
The book offers frameworks that I hope will help you think about, talk about, and practise curiosity in a way that allows you and the people around you to work and live more joyfully.
The book is made up of four parts. The first part will dive into the neuroscience of (collective) curiosity: what we know about curiosity, what it does, how it works, and what its barriers are. The second part will outline a model anyone can use to maximize curiosity at the individual level, and also at the level of the collective. The third part will deepen some specific areas, such as the role of the leader, or culture, or artificial intelligence. I will also expand into some broader themes, such as the relationship between good citizenship and the planet. In the last and fourth part you will be offered a conclusion and a call to action.
Ready to dive in?
We’ll start with the basics. Let’s explore what curiosity is, what it does, how it works, and investigate why curiosity is key for individuals, teams, and organizations.
Let’s do this.
Notes
1
.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/05/future-of-jobs-2023-skills
2
.
https://thehypertextual.com/2010/04/08/gary-hamels-pyramid-of-human-capabilities
/
Part 1The Why and the What of Curiosity
Curiosity is essential in today’s rapidly changing world, driving innovation, learning, and adaptation by challenging the status quo and promoting continuous exploration and discovery. Given that the concept of curiosity has entered boardroom discussions, it is necessary to explore its meaning and implications at a deeper level. That’s what we are doing in Part 1. We discuss what curiosity is, how it works, and what it does. Today, it enjoys a predominantly positive view but still faces challenges within rigid systems. Neuroscience teaches us that curiosity enhances learning and creativity by activating brain regions related to reward, executive control, and memory, triggering a craving for new information similar to hunger. Moderate stress enhances curiosity, while excessive stress inhibits it. Understanding and leveraging the neuroscience of curiosity enables individuals and organizations to foster environments that encourage continuous learning, innovation, and personal growth.
Chapter 1The Business Case for Curiosity
“Open the window, it’s a big world out there.”
Sakichi Toyoda, founder of Toyota Industries Corporation
“If you’re comfortable, you’re doing it wrong.”
Ted Lasso, TV character
Trigger Question: overall, would you say that curiosity is encouraged at your company?
Envisage a world where we recognize that unknown unknowns are the primary catalysts of economic and social change. Unknown unknowns are things that we are neither aware of nor understand. In this world, everything is considered an “accident” in the statistical sense, with finite probabilities of occurrence. This shift means that familiarity can no longer be relied upon, and it has profound implications for expertise, know-how, assumptions, and predictions. Amidst ever-increasing organizational and contextual complexity, professionals collaborate, ploughing through vast knowledge and unprecedented data volumes, often assisted by machines.
This description of future work implies torrents of high-knowledge content and accelerating complexity, which some leaders are already experiencing as today’s reality. An organization that lacks curiosity risks becoming complacent, failing to learn from mistakes, fostering arrogance, and missing out on innovation in the face of new competition. How well-suited are our present organizations and leadership styles for such a situation? That’s the question this chapter will answer.
What Is Curiosity?
Curiosity is the mindset that challenges the status quo, driving discovery, exploration, and learning.
While curiosity is often associated with children exploring the world, it’s equally crucial for adults, helping them to learn and grow, fostering positive connections between people and driving innovation for companies. Being curious means actively seeking novelty, welcoming ideas that challenge our viewpoints, and letting our mistakes trigger curiosity rather than embarrassment. It means asking, “Why was I wrong? What can I learn from it?”
Three dimensions of curiosity
We’ll dive into the various components of curiosity in later chapters. For now, it suffices to introduce the dimensions of curiosity. Curiosity, as a concept, comprises three dimensions:
Transpersonal Curiosity: This dimension is about the thirst for knowledge, the desire to explore the unknown, and the drive to understand the world around us. It motivates us to seek answers to questions and challenges the status quo. It can also be referred to as intellectual curiosity.
Interpersonal Curiosity: This dimension relates to our interest in people, their stories, and their perspectives. It drives us to connect with others, build relationships, and gain insight into different viewpoints. It can also be termed Empathic Curiosity.
Intrapersonal Curiosity: In this dimension, curiosity turns inward. It involves self-reflection and a deep desire to understand our own thoughts, emotions, and motivations. It prompts us to question our beliefs and biases. You can also use the term Self-reflective Curiosity, if you wish.
The Importance of Curiosity for Organizations
Curiosity drives innovation, prevents settling for the status quo, nurtures organizational humility, and promotes divergent opinions. It supports organizational learning, particularly in the context of after-action reviews, and encourages learning from failures. Start-ups, unburdened by rigid routines, excel in this aspect, being four times more likely to learn from mistakes compared to mature organizations.
This does not mean that scale-up or grown-up companies are lost to curiosity. There are numerous examples of grown-up companies who challenge the status quo inside their organization and successfully embrace innovation in products and services and/or customer and employee engagement.
For instance, when comparing the global subscription numbers of on-demand television between the “new” Netflix and the “old” Disney, we see that the Disney+ has been overtaking Netflix for a while already. With the right focus, established organizations can also embrace curiosity and outpace start-ups.
In times of change, standing still means moving backwards. Leadership teams that embrace curiosity create thriving organizations, constantly improving their current operations and preparing for the future.
The Implications of Curiosity for Leaders
Curiosity requires champions. A manager’s curiosity profile significantly influences their team’s curiosity appetite. When a manager demonstrates a high propensity for curiosity by modelling it, generating ideas, questioning the status quo, and showing a hunger for learning, their team responds in kind with a high collective learning footprint.
Conversely, when a manager does not emphasize the importance of learning, the team becomes reluctant to consume knowledge or share their expertise. Role modelling also includes asking questions, actively listening in meetings, and being open to different answers.
Your answer to the trigger question at the beginning of this chapter (“Overall, would you say that curiosity is encouraged at your company?”) will have a direct relationship to how well your leader is managing the team: whether they are uplifting the team towards openness and exploration or, on the other hand, stifling them.
The overall answer to the question varies per team. I encourage the leadership teams I work with to look for best practice teams and praise their leader’s ability to create curiosity. Overall, however, 51% of employees report that their company encourages curiosity. The good thing is that half of employees feel empowered. The other half just needs to be invited onto the bus.
Additionally, if agility in volatile times is important, it pays for leaders to focus on how much their culture and operational processes support curiosity. For instance, whether employees feel that they can ask questions at work. My research has shown that 65% of employees feel they cannot.
The top four barriers to curiosity, as shared by employees and managers in my diagnostics, are, in this order:
Top-down decision-making by management.
I am too busy to explore new ideas.
We don’t learn from our mistakes.
Inquisitiveness and creativity do not lead to public or financial recognition.
Understanding the status quo helps. Once we know it, we can do something about it.
