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Cultivating Curiosity

Cultivating Curiosity

Curiosity is the BA superpower. But is it a trait we are born with or a skill we can cultivate?

Benefits of curiosity

Bringing genuine curiosity to our discussions helps to foster deeper connections. It improves our understanding of situations and creates empathy with those involved. Curiosity leads to better solutions to problems. Being curious stops us from using mental short cuts, making assumptions and applying biases.

There are several studies showing that:

  • There are positive correlations between curiosity and wellbeing
  • Openness to new experience predicts levels of life-satisfaction
  • Greater levels of curiosity are associated with greater resilience.

Curiosity also protects us from poor decision making and jumping to judgement.

Curiosity versus judgement

When we rush to judgment, it closes our eyes to different perspectives and different possibilities.

Remaining curious for just a little longer, before formulating judgements helps us to keep an open mind with our stakeholders, projects and products.

Curiosity is really the opposite of judgement as it is incredibly difficult to be judgemental if we are truly curious about a situation or person.

Barriers to curiosity

What can get in the way of applying an appropriate level of curiosity in our work?

  • “Time” (which really means “priorities”)
  • Too much domain/ subject matter knowledge
  • Bias towards action
  • JFDI culture
  • Lacking tools, support or willingness
  • Worry about asking a stupid question
  • Feeling inadequate, intimidated or afraid

There are lots of things which can prevent us from being curious, or from acting on our curiosity. If that happens our organisations will make the same mistakes, fall into the same traps and fail to learn and innovate.

Curiosity, experience and aging

Children a naturally inquisitive, but most of us lose this attribute as we age, because we have found many answers and now have frames of reference for so many situations. Curiosity can be seen as analogous to naivety, which is not the same at all! Gaining experience does not replace the need for curiosity. Curiosity is the route to increasing our knowledge and experience. As we age, we must be more conscious of the need for curiosity and build it into our approach. Research from the University of Reading (2018) suggests that “While curiosity seems to decline with advancing age, it can also be a proxy for maintaining cognitive functioning, mental health, and physical health in older adults, thus serving as a conduit for “successful aging.”. It seems that maintaining curiosity is good for us.

Techniques for encouraging and enabling curiosity

There are a number of ways we can bring more curiosity into our lives, and in particular our professional practices. Including:

  • Brainstorming for questions about a topic  before we start asking for suggestions and answers.
  • Adopting “Learn it to teach it” – set learning tasks with a view to sharing that knowledge with others
  • Leveraging existing interests – encourage people to share existing skills and knowledge (which may or may not be work-related) as a “skills exchange”.
  • Applying active listening techniques – giving our full focus, using probing to get more depth and summarising to confirm understanding.
  • Praising curiosity – when we see people around us being inquisitive, asking good questions and identifying assumptions, draw attention to these positive behaviours.
  • Encourage work-shadowing – experience processes and challenges from another perspective and discover unknown unknowns!
  • Using the 6 Thinking Hats – to encourage different perspectives to be taken
  • Experimenting defining and testing assumptions and hypotheses, using pilot programmes and adopting a proof-of-concept approach.
  • Role modelling curiosity – demonstrate it is OK not to know, and that if you don’t know, it’s OK to ask!

 

Simply talking more about the expectation of curiosity creates the permission and reminder that some people need. There can be no improvement and certainly no innovation without curiosity.

Conclusion

Curiosity is closely linked to a growth mindset, reminding us that there is always more to learn. As individuals and as business analysts, we are never finished products. Our capacity for curiosity isn’t fixed; it’s a skill we can nurture through deliberate practice. There are many ways to encourage and enable curiosity within our teams. By embedding curiosity into the workplace culture, we can create an environment where information is freely shared, knowledge is continually generated, and innovation is actually achievable.

 

Further reading

Curiosity in old age: a possible key to achieving adaptive aging,  Yagi, A. and Murayama, K. (2018)

Leveraging do Bonos Six Thinking Hats, BA Times (2011)

 


Christina Lovelock

Christina is an experienced BA leader, has built BA teams ranging in size from 5 to 120 Business Analysts and champions entry level BA roles. She is active in the BA professional community, attending and regularly speaking at events. Christina is an examiner for the International Diploma in Business Analysis and is also a director of the UK BA Manager Forum. She has co-authored the 2019 book, Delivering Business Analysis: The BA Service Handbook, which shares insights and findings from research into Business Analysis, practical guidance for BA leaders, and case studies from across the professional community. https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-lovelock