Curiosity Killed No Cats...

Counterintuitive sayings and phrases are all around us, and most of us use them every day without thinking.  But sometimes it really does pay to take a step back, unpack a certain phrase and consider the implications.
 
One such saying, and one that many of us use, parents in particular, is ‘curiosity killed the cat’. We all ‘mean well’ when we say it, after all, poking your nose where it is not wanted, or worse still, somewhere dangerous is not usually a great life choice.  But it’s the misjudgement that’s at fault, not curiosity itself.  
 
In fact, far from being a problem, curiosity might be the single most important attribute we can nurture in our children (and ourselves). Curiosity inspires us. Curiosity motivates us. Curiosity refreshes, educates and energises us.  Without curiosity problems cannot be solved, decisions cannot be made, and fact cannot be discerned from fiction.  Indeed, when we’re training teams in Root Cause Analysis it’s one of the key attributes that we need to draw-out to deliver effective analytical thinking.  


 
When we are curious, we are driven to look at things in terms of first principles – the very building blocks of logic, of philosophy, of communication.  First principles thinking is essentially the act of reducing a process down to the individual parts; the parts that we know to be true. From here we can build, step-by-baby-step.  This what great scientists, lawyers, investigators and engineers do – they assume nothing. They start with questions like, what are we absolutely sure is true? And, what has been proven? Or, is there evidence?   This ‘first principles thinking’ represents an appetite for knowledge, resulting in confident decision making and better problems solving skills – skills that the according to the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Survey of Jobs, are THE most important workplace skills any of us can currently possess.
 
However, cultivating genuine curiosity is not easy.  Research shows that most of us are pretty lazy when it comes to being curious. If you’re anything like the average person you’ve got a busy diary, numerous work projects, unpredictable family obligations and maybe a few social or sporting commitments too.  When time is limited, we tend to subdue our curiosity and instead we fulfil our obligations using pre-gathered knowledge, bias and fast-thinking. But if you can slow down your thinking, be analytical, and allow your curiosity to do its thing, you’ll be amazed how engaged and motivated you and those around you will become, and how you will all begin to tackle problems, challenges and opportunities in a new way.
 
Back in 2011 the US journal ‘Perspectives on Psychological Science’ conducted a meta-analysis on approx. 500 studies that looked at curiosity as a human trait.  They study revealed that not only was there an extremely strong correlation between academic excellence and curiosity (not all that surprising) but that it was also an extremely reliable indicator of how longer-term career success would play out.  In fact, only the trait of ‘conscientiousness’ was signalled as a stronger indicator.     Therefore perhaps, it is not all that surprising that a 2013 report in the ‘Journal of Personality’ revealed a strong correlation between curiosity and a wide range of positive psychological behavioural traits. These included having a non-critical attitude, the ability to think outside the box, the ability to play nicely with ideas, a calm reaction to problem solving, a positive outlook and strong resilience to high levels of uncertainty.  And it can be no coincidence that these are also well-documented benefits of adopting Root Cause Analysis as an organisational problem solving method.
 
So, what we learn is that far from being a deadly pursuit, the cultivation of healthy curiosity is not only important, it’s indispensable.  It may, or may not have resulted in the premature demise of the occasional cat, but for humans, curiosity is an essential life skill.

After all, when did we ever hear someone say – “You know, I put my outstanding success and happiness in life down to having absolutely no curiosity”?

If you want to know more about how our Root Cause Analysis and Tactical Problem Solving methodology could help your organisation solve problems, reduce risk and improve performance please contact us.