More Answers... (04/28/26 Newsletter): The Loss of Being Curious at Work
Hi Everyone,
Here are More Answers... to help you head into the work week. Remember, you can see previous newsletters at askchrista.com/MoreAnswers.
Today’s topic: The Loss of Being Curious at Work
If you're a Ted Lasso fan, you remember the scene in the first season when he plays darts with Rebecca's ex-husband. Of course you do. Everyone does-- and it brought a lot of people comfort as it highlighted a core fundamental of what it takes to win...
And if you aren't a Ted Lasso fan or haven't been able to subscribe to Apple TV for one month to binge all their good series (like how I do: Ted Lasso and Shrinking are worth the $13 for one month, and you get an extra week for free if you time it right...), here's the gist: the villain in the scene makes big assumptions about Ted Lasso and said villain loses BIG as a result.
And all Ted Lasso talks about as he slowly wins a rather large bet, a pace of winning that's much slower than the pace of the villain's losing, is how the villain wouldn't have been in such a losing position if he'd have just been curious.
Oh, and Walt Whitman, even though Walt never said the quote Ted Lasso attributes to him, which I found out because of my own curiosity... But I digress..
"Be Curious."
I think about that scene a lot, mostly because I'm a naturally curious person. As a result, I'm a big learner, too, which most interpret as me being an intellectual of sorts, but it's really more simple than that: I know a lot about random things because the moment I'm curious, I learn as much as I can to satisfy my curiosity-- to the point where it sometimes feels compulsive: I MUST LEARN ABOUT THIS NOW!!!
(I honestly don't know how I functioned back when I had to be home to look things up from our encyclopedia in hopes it might have some answers, or when I had to find a ride to the library and then figure out the Dewey Decimal System to find some answers...)
If I found a new weed in the lawn I've never saw before? I learn a whole bunch about it. Interesting short on YouTube that focuses on a village the the plague never got to? I spend the next hour learning all I can. How cats are more expressive than we think-- and how recent research enables us to better understand why kittens are cute (whether someone likes cats or not)? That's at least a two hours for me-- not because I'm a cat lover, although I great up with them and do enjoy them-- but because I'm endlessly curious. I learn about weather patterns, ancient lost cities, servant leadership, and the best ways to apply the combination of a prism and solid object all within a day if my brain is allowed the space to be itself.
(yes, if you know me, you know I talk about my brain as if it's a separate part of me... "the machine")
For someone like me, being curious is better than a vacation, and yet, my own life frequently prohibits me from satisfying my curiosity. If I'm scrolling at night, it's not because of social media. It's because of Google Scholar and various YouTube channels that focus on actual learning (not quasi-learning or opinion, but the real thing).
I'm not alone. Research supports how people feel increasingly time-constrained, with less discretionary time for learning, hobbies, and exploration than in previous decades (Roxburgh, 2004; Hamermesh & Lee, 2007). Everyone's lives are so busy these days, and at a time when fewer people than ever feel they have the time for hobbies, we take what we can get when we can get it.
For me, it's learning-- but you don't have to be bookish, you just have to be curious.
Curiosity Is the Fun Part of Learning
Curiosity is a way to welcome learning. Every creature on earth has some kind of curiosity associated with it, or at least it may seem that way. When we venture outward, experience new things, ask questions... it's all spurred by curiosity, and research shows how being curious not only sparks energy and connection, but also helps to reduce stress and increase a love of learning. After all, being curious will always lead to learning.
From that perspective, I wish more organizations encouraged time to be curious-- to learn and grow and ask questions in a way that doesn't require an objective other than letting our minds roam free. There is so much benefit to enabling curiosity in the workforce, but how many people have that kind of time, right?
Twenty years ago most companies had budgets and set aside time for employees to learn, grow, and develop. I remember when I was at Fidelity Investments-- where I "cut my teeth" in the first of many highly regulated complex industries, and to this day one of the best places I (personally) worked-- they required all employees to complete 40 hours of learning and development, either by way of training or by way of mentoring and following others.
As everyone else complained about this new requirement, I asked if the 40 hours was a strict cap or if we could go over. (there was simply too much I was curious about, and I could learn about so many things!)
At the same time, Fidelity was onto something. Studies suggest that curiosity is associated with increased engagement, stronger relationships, and greater psychological well-being (Kashdan & Steger, 2007). Who wouldn't want that at work? All three of those things not only make work and the workplace more satisfying, but also increases productivity, lowers stress, and improves performance overall.
But these days, I see less and less curiosity and work, and more and more stifling of free-thinking and asking questions. Some of that is the lack of goals and metrics that are driven by actual innovation (and at the root of innovation is curiosity, paired with imagination of course). Part of it is the amount of scarcity that abounds in US-led companies over the last 15 years, and part of it is society behaving and moving more toward being the ones who have all the answers and less about being the ones who ask all the questions.
It's Hard to Be Curious When Everyone Knows Everything
(and I'm talking about adults, not kids...)
Tom Nichols wrote about some of this in The Death of Expertise (Oxford University Press 2017, 2024)-- a fascinating read, and sure, everyone can make claim to the lack of curiosity in society. Somehow everyone seems to know everything, but his book was specifically highlighting how society was also shunning the research, researchers, academics, experts, and journalists who actually know a lot about specific topics.
He wrote the first version of his book in 2017 then an updated one reflective of the pandemic in 2024. He's an incredible writer, teacher, and podcast guest (and rather funny, too), so I recommend you learn more about him. His work is the type of work you can be curious about-- in part because he openly shares his own curiosity, and you clearly see that he learns and knows because he is endlessly curious.
But this spills into the workforce, too-- this "knowing without learning" with such a pronounced lack of curiosity. What I've seen and studied is much of this has to do with how too many leaders (and board members, little "b" on purpose) someone conflate curiosity with lack of knowledge, which is then assumed to mean a lack of judgment. Of course that's absurd: being curious and asking questions isn't always correlated with a lack of knowing how to do someone's job or make appropriate decisions. In fact, more often than not, it leads to additional learning and a better decision if the curiosity and questions are relevant.
(don't even get me started on how leaders don't know what questions to ask have the time, including board members...)
But these days, CEOs aren't able to ask curious questions unless it comes across as confirmatory. VPs aren't able to ask curious questions unless it comes across as a challenge. Line workers, middle managers, supervisors... same.
And yet, when people are curious, they are more likely to retain information and stay motivated to keep learning (Gruber, Gelman, & Ranganath, 2014).
So here are some things we can all do to generate and reinvigorate our own sense of curiousity.
Bringing Back the Art Of Curiousity One Question at a Time
There are some things we can all do immediately to help spur curiosity in the workplace:
1. Ask one more question than you normally would-- even better if others see you doing it.
Even small increases in question-asking can improve understanding and connection while modeling what curiosity looks like. Asking more questions, especially follow-up questions, strengthens relationships and learning, too (Huang, Yeomans, Brooks, Minson, & Gino, 2017).
2.Shift your language from “knowing” to “exploring" (language matters and shapes perception and behavior)
Dr. Carol Dweck, originator and lead researcher for the term "Growth Mindset" (2006) talks about this a lot, but you all know it works, too. We've seen an entire society change in 50 years based on various adjectives used enough times to change the thinking. Talk about wanting to "explore" aspects of a topic as a way to be curious. Often times people have different interpretations of what learning means, but "exploring" is usually a universal understanding.
3. Cultivate your own curiosity with small moments of learning.
You do not need hours (although I usually take them anyway hah hah!). But you'll find that even brief periods of exploration (<-- see what I did there?) can spark curiosity. We all know this, but you can read the research in Gruber et al. (2014).
4. Similar to what I write in #1 above: model curiosity, especially when you lead others-- and remember that you lead others every day, whether you're a manager or not.
When leaders ask thoughtful, open questions, it signals that curiosity is valued and safe, which increases team learning and psychological safety (Edmondson, 1999).
Booster for the Week!
With kindness,
Christa
(Helpful? Interesting? Please feel free to forward and invite others to subscribe at askchrista.com/newsletter.)
References
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
Gruber, M. J., Gelman, B. D., & Ranganath, C. (2014). States of curiosity modulate hippocampus-dependent learning via the dopaminergic circuit. Neuron, 84(2), 486–496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.08.060
Hamermesh, D. S., & Lee, J. (2007). Stressed out on four continents: Time crunch or yuppie kvetch? The Review of Economics and Statistics, 89(2), 374–383. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest.89.2.374
Huang, K., Yeomans, M., Brooks, A. W., Minson, J. A., & Gino, F. (2017). It doesn’t hurt to ask: Question-asking increases liking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 430–452. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000097
Kashdan, T. B., & Steger, M. F. (2007). Curiosity and pathways to well-being and meaning in life. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(1), 159–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2006.05.002
Roxburgh, S. (2004). “There just aren’t enough hours in the day”: The mental health consequences of time pressure. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 45(2), 115–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/002214650404500201
(remember: most public libraries in the USA offer access to academic papers; however, if yours does not, then Google these papers to see where they are listed, how you can learn more about them, and how you can find similar papers to learn more about conflict management and conflict resolution in the workplace)
