What I learned at the United Nations that day
I had spent the prior five years working on innovation projects in the scientific community. This involved working with scientists during these 3-day and 5-day long conferences, so needless to say I got to know a lot of them quite well.
Then on a random afternoon, I was invited to join an event as an audience member at the UN in New York. It was a panel event with each of the directors of various UN departments. The subject was innovation.
The moderator allowed each panelist to elaborate on how their department conducted itself with regards to innovation and then collected questions from the audience.
I was really impressed from what I heard. It seemed like they were doing all the right things with regards to innovation. Design Thinking, Agile Teams... They had all the right answers.
So, I stood up and asked something along the lines of...
So, yeah, okay... it seems like you've got the how of innovation sorted, but I'm wondering, why do your staff innovate? What really motivates and drives them, and where does their why begin to fail with regards to innovation?
I think I frustrated a few panelists by my presupposition that they'd failed in some way, but it turned out that was revealing.
Achievers vs Learners
The moderator collected all the questions first, and then allowed panelists to answer at their leisure, but each panelist wanted to comment on my question. In every single one of their answers they described their staff as "achievers" or referred to a drive to "achieve" or being defined by their "achievements."
It seemed to me then, and still does now, that the United Nations, and many other organizations, are staffed with people who identify as achievers, people who worked hard for good grades and scholarships, got the right answers on exams, and nailed the job interview... but innovation has nothing to do with right answers or good grades.
The group I interacted with at the UN and the scientists I had been working with in my day-to-day had a stark contrast between them.
The achievers were driven to achieve their goal, but held an inherent fear of failure and an aversion to risk. Both of which hamper innovation.
The scientists on the other hand, were driven by a very deep and genuine curiosity. More than anything else, they wanted to know. They didn't care if they were right or wrong, they just wanted to know how things worked in physics, or biology, or whatever their discipline may have been.
Those deeply curious scientists were pumping out new discoveries on a yearly basis, whereas the achievers were having trouble.
Sometimes, no matter how badly you want to achieve your goal, the fact that you desperately want to achieve it is precisely what's keeping you from learning what you need to learn to get it.
What is Curiosity?
There are three aspects to curiosity that are important.
First is a sense of awe and wonder. Children exhibit this so beautifully. They are fascinated by the tinest of things. You could set out to walk to the park and a child with have 600 questions about the ants in the crack in the sidewalk three steps outside of your door.
This is the core of curiosity.
Second is a love of learning. The fruit of curiosity and the reason it has so much value in innovation is that it yields insight. The internet is in my pocket because a thousand scientists and engineers discovered incredible things about the way electrons and radio waves behave, and about how information can be organized, stored, and shared. Not to mention the entrepreneurs who discovered the business models that sustain these efforts economically.
Learning is the fruit of curiosity and a driver of innovation.
Third, curiosity is a willingness to unlearn. Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t the things ya know that get you in trouble. It’s the things ya know for sure, that just ain’t so.” There’s so much value in unlearning something you thought you knew, but it hurts. Have you ever lost an argument to Google? You're arguing about something with a group of friends, and you're sure you've got your facts straight. Then, someone pulls out their phone. Boom, not so right anymore!
If you can be open to being totally wrong under an incredible amount of social pressure and stress, you're on the right track.
If you can remain curious, instead of becoming defensive, while someone criticises you or your ideas, then you know you've got a masterful command of your curiosity.
How to cultivate your own curiosity
Curiosity is incredibly easy to practice. Anytime someone else is talking, you can fall into an attitude of curiosity. Anytime you're commuting or have otherwise unproductive time, allow your mind to float away on things in your environment that make you curious (If you have the time, you might even get off at a random train station and explore a new neighborhood). Anytime you notice someone else being swept away by their curiosity, appreciate them or join them even!
Sometimes it's difficult to stay curious, like when someone is criticising you, but it's precisely when it's difficult, that curiosity can transform you.
