Research suggests that curiosity is the key to life satisfaction and career satisfaction. Promoting curiosity isn’t child’s play; rather, curiosity has a valuable place in every winning business strategy.
In 2014, the Harvard Business Review proclaimed “Curiosity Is as Important as Intelligence.” In a world that “has never been more intricate,” the idea of curiosity takes a front seat as we attempt to keep up with the “pace of technological changes, and the vast amount of information that we are generating.”
With the complexity of the times, our intellect shouldn’t be the only resource on which we rely.
The curiosity quotient (or CQ) is just as important as the intellectual quotient (or IQ). According to Harvard Business Review:
“[CQ] concerns having a hungry mind. People with higher CQ are more inquisitive and open to new experiences. They find novelty exciting and are quickly bored with routine. They tend to generate many original ideas and are counter-conformist. It has not been as deeply studied as EQ and IQ, but there’s some evidence to suggest it is just as important when it comes to managing complexity in two major ways. First, individuals with higher CQ are generally more tolerant of ambiguity. This nuanced, sophisticated, subtle thinking style defines the very essence of complexity.”
In business, not only does curiosity come in handy when it’s time to make sense of the complicated, but curiosity also boasts several benefits to a company’s bottom line. A 2010 Inc. article declared “Innovative leaders not only start innovative companies, they sustain them with constant curiosity.”
How can business leaders remain constantly curious, you ask? One of the first steps is to adopt a discovery outlook, which means “asking provocative questions” and experimenting endlessly in the name of innovation. While the word “innovation” often conjures up the specter of tech startups, innovation applies to every industry. Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly on new ideas.
When you foster an atmosphere of curiosity at your organization, it boosts employee morale and your organization’s culture, not to mention your business’s bottom line. After all, any firm who is out there chasing new business and courting new clients knows that curiosity is what turns small leads into big payoffs.
