Why you will benefit from staying Curious
In his new book, “Ask”, Dan Solin (a friend of Stewart Partners) looks at studies in the fields of psychology and neuroscience to understand how we can make deeper connections with people.
Dan devotes an entire chapter to the importance and benefits of being curious. We have detailed some of his key findings in this article.
Researchers have shown that curiosity is the fuel that powers personal growth and happiness. Curiosity also triggers neurological changes in our brains, priming them for learning.
George Loewenstein explained the critical importance of curiosity in a seminal paper, published in 1994. He found curiosity was a “driving force in child development”. He also observed that being curious is “one of the most important spurs to educational attainment”. Curiosity is essential for maturing into a successful adult, because without the drive to learn, it is highly unlikely you will succeed.
Successful business leaders surround themselves with curious people. Companies like Google encourage their employees to be curious by devoting up to 20% of their worktime to pursuing side projects they are curious about. These forays have produced Google Maps, twitter and Slack.
There are no shortage of examples of the catastrophic consequences of lack of curiosity in business. If Excite had been curious about the possibility of making its search engine better, it might have accepted Larry Page’s offer to purchase Google for US$750,000 when it had the opportunity. Google (Alphabet) is currently worth US$1 trillion, and Excite is rarely used as a search engine.
Unfortunately as we age, we often become jaded. We don’t have as many questions. Steve Taylor, the author of Making Time, sees adults as “desensitised to our experience, which means we process less information”. The sense of wonder we feel as children – being in a state of curiosity and asking lots of questions – is replaced by wondering that is more directly linked to our interests and personality.
Fostering your curiosity has many benefits beyond being happier and more successful. It’s also been found to have remarkable health benefits, like making you less prone to develop Alzheimer’s disease and more likely to live longer. Your overall mental health improves if you are curious because you’re much more likely to find meaning and purpose in what you do. This is consistent to our clients thinking about retirement to ensure they retire to something, not from something. There’s also evidence that curious people are less likely to be depressed.
Todd Kashdan, author of The Power of Curiosity, says “one of the most reliable and overlooked keys to happiness is cultivating and exercising our innate sense of curiosity”. He explains that developing a heightened sense of curiosity makes us open to different experiences, which permit us to “experience discovery, joy and delight”.
In their paper, “Facilitating Curiosity”, Todd Kashdan and Frank Fincham offer some suggestions for creating the conditions under which we will be our best and most curious selves. These include:
entering into conversations and situations with a curious mindset and avoiding passivity.
prepare so that you feel competent enough to be properly curious. Displaying competence in the questions you ask doesn’t just result in discovering what you want to know, but also leads to praise and affirmation.
start with the intention to make an emotional connection. It makes the person you’re talking to relax and feel safe in your presence.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) published research in 2018[i] also explaining the benefits of being curious. For individuals, the key benefits were:
Fewer decision-making errors from being less likely to fall prey to confirmation bias (looking for information that supports our beliefs rather than for evidence suggesting we are wrong) and stereotyping people. Curiosity has these positive effects because it leads us to generate alternatives.
Reduced conflict as people are encouraged to put themselves in one another’s shoes and take an interest in one another’s ideas rather than focus only on their own perspective.
For companies, the HBR research found curiosity is vital to performance. Two important insights about curiosity as it relates to business were noted:
Curiosity is more important to a company’s performance than previously thought, because cultivating it at all levels helps leaders and their employees adapt to uncertain market conditions and external pressures. When our curiosity is triggered, we think more deeply and rationally about decisions and come up with more creative solutions.
Although leaders might say they treasure inquisitive minds, in fact most stifle curiosity, fearing it will increase risk and inefficiency. In a survey conducted of more than 3,000 employees from a wide range of firms and industries, only about 24% reported feeling curious in their jobs on a regular basis, and about 70% said they face barriers to asking more questions at work.
Curiosity may be bad for the health of a cat, but the evidence strongly suggests it can be a boon for yours. If you intend being the most curious person in the room, it is likely you will enjoy more interesting conversations and better relationships. You cannot learn if you do all the talking.
Author: Rick Walker with thanks to extracts from “Ask – how to relate to anyone” by Daniel R.Solin, 2020
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[i] The Business Case for Curiosity, Francesca Gino, Harvard Business Review, September 2018