Curiosity, an important aspect in the workplace

Creative mind. An employee shares his research findings with colleagues. Peter Kimbowa, a business consultant, says employees with a curious mindset excel across disciplines.
Photo by leecconsultants

When most employees are asked what makes them outstanding on the job compared to others, their response is usually around being highly qualified, effective delivery, skilled and so many more. However, most times, no one mentions the ability to seek more knowledge about a skill or job opening; there is nothing tickling their mind beyond the office boundaries to know more than they think. Experts believe curiosity is vital for employee growth and excellence.
The 2018 World Economic Forum report lists top growing skills that will be required in the workplace by 2022. These include analytical thinking and innovation; active learning and learning strategies; creativity; originality and initiative; technology design and programming; critical thinking; analysis; complex problem-solving; leadership and social influence. Also, there is emotional intelligence, reasoning, problem-solving and ideation, and systems analysis and evaluation.
Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive officer from 2001 to 2011 once stated: “We run this company on questions, not answers.”
In this era of creativity, it all begins with curiosity. At most workplaces, leaders say they value employees who question or explore things, but research shows that they largely suppress curiosity, out of fear that it will increase risk and undermine efficiency.
While giving a career talk at the 24th Annual Institute of Certified Public Accounts Uganda (ICPAU) seminar at Imperial Royale Beach Hotel recently, Peter Kimbowa, a business consultant at IFE Consultancy, spoke to accountants about the need for curiosity in the workplace.
He says: “Curiosity improves engagement and collaboration. Curious people make better choices, improve their company’s performance, and help their company adapt to uncertain market conditions and external pressures.”
Leaders should encourage curiosity in themselves and others by making small changes to the design of their organisation and the ways they manage their employees.
Kimbowa shares five strategies to encourage curiosity in the workplace:

Hire employees with curious mindset
People associated with deep skills such as critical thinking, analysis, problem solving, and ideation, permits them to contribute to the creative processes at the work space. These skills help them excel across disciplines - a quality requiring empathy and curiosity in a workplace.

Model inquisitiveness
Leaders can encourage curiosity throughout their organisations by being inquisitive themselves; by asking questions and genuinely listening to the responses.
When employees acknowledge to not knowing the answer; that makes it clear that it’s okay to be guided by the leaders.

Emphasise learning new goals
He asks: “What can I learn?” Developing competence, acquiring skills, mastering new situations and always be prepared for the unexpected roles/duties imposed rather than performance goals (hitting targets, proving our competence and impressing others) boosts career growth in a range of fields.

Let employees explore and broaden their interests
Kimbowa adds that organisations can foster curiosity by giving employees time and resources to explore their interests. When employees have chances to expand their interests, research has found, they not only remain curious, but also become more confident about what they can accomplish and become more successful at work.

Have “why?” “what if…?” and “how might we…?” days
“To encourage curiosity, leaders ought to teach employees ‘How to ask good questions’. As every parent knows, ‘Why?’ is persistent in the vocabulary of young children, who have an insatiable need to understand the world around them. They aren’t afraid to ask questions, and they don’t worry about whether others believe they should already know the answers. Leaders can stress the value of learning by reacting positively to mediocre ideas that could be springboards to better ones.”

Benefits

Peter Kimbowa, a business consultant, shares benefits of employee curiosity to an organisation: It facilitates fewer decision-making errors for instance when our curiosity is triggered, we are less likely to fall prey to confirmation bias and stereotyping.
Curiosity leads to generating alternatives.
“It encourages more innovation and positive changes in both creative and noncreative roles. When we are curious, we view tough situations more creatively. Studies have found that curiosity is associated with less defensive reactions to stress and have less aggressive reactions to provocation,” he confirms.
In addition to that, it reduces group conflict.
Curiosity encourages members of a team 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.
He adds that curiosity also encourages more-open communication and better team performance.