Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it can help keep your venture alive

The issue: What leadership stance helps grow and sustain an organization?

Several weeks ago, I was listening to a conference panel discussion where three experienced and successful social entrepreneurs talked about their experiences as they launched and scaled their ventures. When the time came for questions, I asked them, “Reflecting back on your experiences, what would you say is one of the qualities you’ve learned is most important in leading a venture?” The first person to speak with a woman who has created an innovative Blue Sphere Q mark model for providing an integrated approach to health care for low-income individuals and families in urban areas in the U.S. She began the project while still a college student, devoting herself to it full-time when she graduated. And now several years later, she is scaling the model to new cities. She was very clear in her response, “I am always learning. I am always curious. I am open to not knowing the answer.”

This young woman didn’t have experience creating or managing organizations. Like many social entrepreneurs, she is learning as she goes. She constantly seeks out people who are successful at running organizations, not necessarily in her field, but across a sectors and issue areas. She is relentless in seeking out what allows them to be successful, and seeing how that might apply to her and her endeavor. While clearly really bright and really ambitious, she was unafraid, actually, I’d say fearless, about “not knowing," and relentlessly curious. Indeed, while her organization was being relatively effective and demonstrated early success, her prevailing stance was one of “what can we do to make this better?” even if no problems were currently apparent in her organization’s operations. She was remarkably undefended about revealing both her leadership and organizational blind spots. In fact, she saw these as opportunities for learning.

The other two panelists nodded their heads in agreement as she spoke. Each of them shared what felt like a hunger to be in conversations with others from whom they could learn. They were oriented toward learning rather than demonstrating how much they knew. The theme here was “always learning” – always! For each of the three speakers, curiosity was a central, basic operating principle.

What you can do Part 1: Cultivating curiosity as a general orientation

The focus here is on your being curious and comfortable with not knowing as an important orientation in leading your venture. But, especially if being curious is not something that comes naturally for you in your role, a way to encourage yourself toward this orientation is to practice cultivating curiosity and not knowing as a more general orientation, in a low-stakes unpressured environment. The idea is that if you cultivate this orientation in your life, more generally, it will be more likely that you bring this orientation to your leadership role when under pressure or when the stakes are high. It’s like going to the batting cage, so you can hit the ball without the consequences of being in an actual baseball game. You practice, so that your body gets used to finding the right swing. Then, when you are up at the plate, you have "body memory," it feels familiar.

You can use your life as a safe “practice field” for cultivating curiosity. I encourage you to take on whatever you select as a “practice” -something you bring awareness to and do again and again over some period of time, with the intention of developing something in yourself. This is how you cultivate a new “trait” that is actually biologically-rooted in your brain. And developing a new trait or orientation means that you will find yourself naturally taking actions consistent with this new trait. (In this case "curiosity.") Regular practice over time stimulates the growth of new neural pathways. No Kidding!

As a “low-stakes” relatively risk-free experiment in curiosity and not knowing, you can try one of the following. What ever you select, do it daily for a least 4 weeks. Reflect at the end of each week on what you are noticing in yourself and how you are oriented in the world. What are the implications for you as a leader?

Curious about others:

Each day, in your conversations with someone, practice being curious. Rather than responding with an answer, ask a question that will allow you to get a fuller, broader, more vivid, more nuanced or deeper idea of what the person is talking about with you. For example, if you are talking about movies with a friend, and a friend says they like the movie, “The King’s Speech” (or whatever movie), ask them, “What is it you liked about it?” “How did seeing the movie affect you?” Anything that allows you to explore their experience more fully.

If you are having dinner with your partner, friend(s) or kids, ask: “How was your day?” And with whatever they respond, ask something like, “Can you tell me a bit more about that?” “What was most interesting for you about your day?What made it interesting for you?” “How did that affect you?”

Curious about your surroundings

As you are walking down the street, pay attention to your surroundings. Pause and really observe something along your way. It could be looking with curiosity at a flower or tree, the architecture of a building, the light. Let yourself really move toward and further into the experience. What draws you in to what you are observing? What do you notice you like or don’t like? How does that affect your openness or closedness? What supports your staying open, to continue being curious?

Curious about yourself:

Pay attention to your way of responding to others. For example: Pay attention to your way of responding to a friend or family member. Rather than just responding, pay attention to your way of responding. Notice how you are oriented toward this person before they even start taking with you – that, indeed, you are oriented toward them in some way – how open or closed? Notice when you are interacting with this person, what kinds of thoughts or judgments do you find yourself having? What does it feel like in your body? How does this affect you way of responding to them? What is your sense of how your way of responding to this person may affect the way they related to you?

What you can do Part 2: Curiosity as a leader

As you begin to develop your ability to be curious (vs. judgmental, blameful, impatient, etc.) I encourage you to take up the follow inquiry about how you are as a leader. Take a week and once per day, reflect on the following:

How are you oriented in your role? Toward your organization? To what extent do you feel compelled to always “know”? To have the answers? To know how to solve current problems or challenges? To what extent are you comfortable with “not knowing”. To what extent are you curious?

Ask yourself: What are the current challenges or problems my venture faces?
Each day, have one conversation with someone inside or outside of your organization in which you intentionally take a stance of curiosity. For example, ask the person you speak with, “What’s your ‘take’ on this issue? What is it you are seeing about the situation that has you take that perspective?”

After the conversation, notice what the experience of being curious and not knowing was like for you.
- How comfortable/uncomfortable was it?
- What did you learn? About the issue/problem? About yourself? About your way of relating?
- Based on what you observe, what action might you take in the future?