Curiosity -THE urgent skill gap
- Meg Bear
- Aug 1, 2020
- 2 min read
We are in a time of change acceleration, this was true well before COVID-19. In the last six months we have reached a point that has likely surprised even the disruptors. Change that we expected to be incremental and long term, was suddenly massive and immediate.
So many things changing all at once, that there is no playbook for us to follow and no obvious way to predict which is the right path to take. When Frank mused about the lack of viable predictions for 2020, we ended up down a [fun] rabbit hole discussing the risk of over applying what you know (or think you know).
Experience is great for optimizing and improving output of the known. Experience can be a risk when you need to do something you've never done before. In times of change, we need more innovators, and while necessity may be the mother of innovation, curiosity is the fuel.
What's fascinating about curiosity, is that it's not a new skill to any of us. Spend a day with any toddler in a "why" loop and you will see what I mean. We are born curious. We have to be, nobody is born smart. What happens to us is that often once we gain experience and develop heuristics, we fail to remember we might be wrong or more likely, fail to notice when the foundation for our heuristic has materially changed. This risk is especially high for anyone who has been successful. This is why disruption can be so unsettling for experts -- expertise that has exceeded its shelf life can shake a leaders self esteem.
Intellectual curiosity is the skill we all need to build. We need to recruit for it, promote it, and most importantly develop it. Every day. We need to actively take ourselves out of our comfort zones to develop not just new skills but new ways of thinking. We need to join and engage with diverse groups, leaning on our empathy. We all need to cultivate a beginners mindset and see that change is not a risk to experience, it is a new way to leverage it.
Leadership in times of change is not about knowing, it is about learning and creating. It is not about having the answers, but instead asking the right questions.