How Can Entrepreneurs Practice Curiosity?

Dr. James Nilson is a renowned anesthesiologist who just loves the outdoors. The last time the good doctor went backpacking, he realized that navigating through the woods requires a little bit of creativity, which is something that can be applied to our careers as well. Currently, he belongs to a group at Tufts Medical Center nicknamed the "Apollo 13 Team" because it has been tasked to come up with innovations to fill the gaps in medical supplies and personal protective equipment. One of the group's innovations is a splash guard — modified from a piece of camping equipment — to protect hospital staff members when a patient needs to be put on an oxygen delivery system. The idea stemmed from the bivy sack — a lightweight alternative to a tent used by expert campers. Dr. Nilson took some PVC tubing and a large plastic bag and created what he now calls a "splash bivy." His team brainstormed similar creative solutions and came up with more than 150 novel swab designs made of 45 different materials. They narrowed the list down to four prototypes. This story is just one of the many examples of why the entrepreneurs of the 21st Century need to be curious and hungry. Here’s why I think curiosity no longer kills the cat! Think about how you think! I firmly believe that entrepreneurship is a mindset. I’ve seen that entrepreneurs who are curious by nature think and reflect deeply on what people want. It is this mindset that compels them to understand their target audience’s pain points and come up with practical and long-lasting solutions. When faced with a challenge, our brain enters a state called the ‘river of thinking.’ Our brain is wired to draw a connection between new stimuli and past experiences. While this is the logical way to solve problems, I think it limits the human capacity for ingenuity. Being, experienced, therefore, puts you at a disadvantage. When you think the answer to an existing problem is hidden in your past experiences, you don’t bother putting your creative genius to work to ideate a new, better solution. Our solutions should absolutely be informed by our experience, but our creative spirit must take the center stage during problem solving. Before turning to our past for answers, let’s seek new experiences, expose ourselves to diverse ideas, ask questions, and stimulate our brains into creating new rivers of thinking, or at least changing the flow of existing ones to ideate creative solutions. Creativity stems from curiosity and the secret to arousing curiosity is to think how you think. Throughout the day, we go through several different types of state. From deep sleeping to meditative to laser-focused to multitasking, our mind goes in all directions when we’re thinking. You need to recognize which state your brain is in and create the right conditions for your subconscious, creative side to come out. There are several ways you can enter a state of curiosity. For some people, all it takes is going for a walk, while others prefer taking a nap or meditating. Understand the difference between expansive & reductive thinking Have you ever wondered why children are more creative than adults? It’s because children practice something called ‘expansive thinking,’ while grown-ups spend more time on ‘reductive thinking.’ To understand the difference between the two, just watch children play with Lego. They will experiment with various blocks, try to make sense of patterns, and then create something interesting. That’s just how expansive thinking works. Expansive thinking involves analyzing patterns and looking for more options. On the other hand, reductive thinking is all about doing mundane, repetitive stuff. Expansive is all about ‘what can we do?’ while reductive is ‘what are we doing? When we engage in expansive thinking, we are actively searching for and evaluating options at hand, and, at times, even ideating new ones. It’s clear that curiosity stems from expansive thinking, but that does not mean we should rid ourselves of reductive thinking entirely. At the end of the day, we do need to make decisions and get stuff done. What we really need is a balance between the two. Let’s combine the curious mindset with our inclination to focus on tasks at hand, make decisions, and make a positive impact. Create an environment that fosters curiosity When you’re a leader, your team members are only as creative and curious as you allow them to be. Eventually, it falls upon you to inspire curiosity in your team and create an environment that fosters it. And, as I have mentioned before, the best way to create a curious team is to have hiring practices that focus on diversity. As a leader, you must actively seek people with diverse experiences, personalities, and mindsets to create a team that can elude groupthink and conformity, both of which stifle curiosity. You must also take a closer look at the diversity of your business network. It’s vital for a team to be informed by varying external perspectives and ideas in the market. It fuels curiosity, widens a team’s thinking, helps identify and steer clear of internal biases, and ultimately, results in better decision making. Additionally, to promote expansive thinking at work, entrepreneurs must:

• Encourage ideas from team members, instead of quashing them.

• Say ‘tell me more.’

• Nurture and support new thoughts.

• Suspend their judgment.

• Focus on the solution, instead of the person presenting it.

• Focus on learning and not just the result.

• Try to be approachable.

• Break rules from time to time to disrupt your thinking and open yourself to new ways of doing things.

A culture that promotes curiosity is one that encourages questions and gives people the authority to challenge existing ideas and business practices. Building a culture that is grounded in asking ‘Why?’ and ‘Why not?’ is not as easy as it seems because it requires an acceptance of the fact that we don’t know all the answers and that there are better ways of doing things. To foster curiosity, leaders must embrace humility and nurture a drive to learn and to explore individual interests at all levels of the organization. Work with 3 types of people As a leader, I have worked with all team members with different backgrounds and thought processes. If you want to create a culture that promotes curiosity, you must spend time with the following three types of people:

1. NORMAL: These people give you a point of view that agrees with your river of thinking.

2. DEEP: These people give you an expert opinion regarding the problem at hand.

3. WEIRD: These people offer a fresh perspective and a creative alternative.

I suggest spending 70% of your time with NORMAL, 20% with DEEP, 10% with WEIRD people. Connect with others in a similar situation Every challenge that comes your way has already been faced by someone else in an unrelated way. Ask yourself: Where has the issue been faced before and by whom? When approaching others going through the same situation, ask specific questions that relate to the solution. Talk about the context of the challenges and any constraints and limitations. Don’t simply reconfirm the other individual’s experience. Then, evaluate your own situation and reorient your response to reflect the learnings from the similar experiences of others. Entrepreneurs of the 21st Century need to step out of their comfort zones and adopt curiosity as a way of life. With the right type of inward reflection, you can come up with the most creative solutions to any issue and create an environment that fosters curiosity and creativity.