Curiosity

Many people I talk to have an uneasy relationship with curiosity. I know that I do. We all start out our lives as naturally curious beings. That is the way we learn. At a young age, most of us asked questions about everything.

I remember as a parent being stumped by the number of times my children would ask me why about something.  

Daddy, why is a plant green? 

Because of the chlorophyll in the leaves. 

Daddy, why is chlorophyll green? 

Because at the centre of chlorophyll is a copper atom that reflects green when light hits it. 

Daddy, why does copper reflect green light and so on...

Somewhere along the way that changed for me. Maybe it did for you as well. Like the Lilliput people feeling threatened by the unfamiliar Gulliver, I chose to either avoid difficult questions completely or answer them in a way that minimized the underlying issue. I became a knower rather than a learner. 

In 2008 I attended a systems thinking conference in Boston and saw a cartoon that reflected my uneasy relationship with questions. The cartoon has stuck in my mind ever since and I decided to draw it for this post. 

Some thoughts on curiosity:

Curiosity allows us to reach a deeper level of understanding. Some questions are not meant to be answered too quickly. We need to let questions like this exist, without being fully answered, until a meaningful answer emerges. Reflection may take a while, depending upon the question. 

Interestingly, children's natural approach of repeated questioning is now being promoted as a business tool. The asking of 'why' several times in a row is called the 5 why's - an iterative question-asking technique designed to explore cause-and-effect relationships underlying a problem.  

Curiosity plays a key role in relationships. A genuine curiosity in another person and an openness to their perspective is a dimension of respect.  This reminds me of a friend of mine. When we get together for coffee, he always has a meaningful question to ask me. After he asks the question, he listens, and I feel honoured.  I have seen him have the same effect with meaningful questions in groups that he leads.

'Each question invites another and offers the opportunity of going deeper and discovering more. Each question hopes for understanding and is an offering of respect.'  (Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect)

Curiosity takes the time to ask the right question. Sometimes the right question is more important than the right answer.  Asking the wrong question may leave us in the same box that we have been in many times before, wondering why we can't move forward into our dreams.  In contrast, the right question has the potential to open doors that we did not know were there. In fact, it was an unexpected question that led to me starting The Daniel Mosaic. 

This week as you move forward into your dream, why not cultivate curiosity as a response to things you do not understand. Spend some time with some good questions and see what emerges...