Daily Inspiration: “Stuck in an idea rut? Maybe you should hire a Senior Vice President of Continuous Curiosity!”

“Stuck in an idea rut? Maybe you should hire a Senior Vice President of Continuous Curiosity!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

⁣Let’s talk about curiosity, or rather, the stunning lack of it in many organizations!⁣

⁣⁣Some years back, the drug company Merck released the First International Curiosity Study – it was a great report! (I’m curious as to where the second one is, 3 years later….)⁣

• ⁣Some of the findings? ⁣
  ⁣more than 8 out of 10 people agreed that “a curious person is more likely to bring an idea to life at work”⁣
• even so, innately curious – only 20% did!⁣
• instead, the majority described themselves as ‘organized, collaborative and detail-oriented’⁣
• curiosity came in 12th place on a list of attributes! (funny and talkative beat out curiosity, if you can believe it!)⁣

⁣How did the study define curiosity? Inquisitiveness, creativity, openness…⁣

• ⁣The result of the lack of curiosity is kind of staggering: buried away in the report are these gems:⁣
• 73% of those surveyed did not feel comfortable in asking more questions at work⁣
• 50% in Germany indicated that they feel discouraged by their employee from changing the status quo!⁣
• only 9% felt that the organizations they worked for were “extremely encouraging’ of curiosity⁣
• 61% indicated that the organization was not at all encouraging at all, or only somewhat encouraging⁣

⁣Gosh, these results are pretty sad! Pathetic, really!⁣

⁣Here’s what it means: many organizations, in the face of rapid business model, technological, competitive, social and political change, would prefer that their staff simply remain in a drone-like state, focused on getting things done, rather than figuring out now to do things better!⁣

⁣What should we do with the observations from such a study? ⁣

⁣Clearly, since we know that curiosity is at the root of much of innovation, the ideas should be obvious for anyone with a curious mind: hire someone to fire up your curiosity!⁣