If I were to pick just one key takeaway from this book—the one skill that I think everyone must cultivate—it would be curiosity and continual learning. Whatever your age, whatever your industry, if you can spark your curiosity (and, crucially, keep that spark alive), you'll be giving yourself the best chance of a successful, fulfilling life—workwise and otherwise. Being curious is what introduces us to new people, new information, and new experiences. It keeps life interesting and stops us getting stuck in a rut. As such, it's key to maintaining an active, healthy mind, which, as someone who's embracing middle age, I consider a definite priority!
And in a work context, curiosity and continual learning is fundamental to being able (and willing) to embrace change. It ensures your skills stay sharp, that you can keep up with the major transformations taking place in the fourth industrial revolution, and that you stay relevant.
Luckily, it's easier than ever to access learning materials. From audiobooks and podcasts to online courses, learning can be done on your terms. You just need to cultivate that desire to learn, that all-important curiosity.
Curiosity is the desire to learn and understand new things—whether it's understanding how something works, learning a new hobby, trying new foods, visiting new places, or whatever. This desire to learn fuels a journey of continual learning (also called lifelong learning), which is the ongoing, self-motivated pursuit of knowledge.
We're born into this world with an in-built curiosity. To babies and toddlers, everything is new and fascinating. And as anyone who has small (verbal) children knows, “why” is one of their favorite words. That's curiosity in action. Why is that thing like that? Why are you doing that? Why do I have to … ? Why, why, why?
At some point, most of us lose this constant desire to question everything. It starts at school, hampered by traditional education systems that generally value correct answers over questions. (This is backed up by research that shows the average 6- to 18-year-old student asks just one question per hour-long class per month—a stark contrast to preschool children's rate of questioning.1)
This is a shame, because curiosity is a key ingredient in the learning process. Learning is just easier when you want to learn. The good news is, even if you feel you've lost that childlike curiosity—and you're not alone—there are many practical ways to reignite your curiosity and maintain a curious mind (more on that later in the chapter).
Like young children, curious people ask lots of questions, and they're not shy about it. In fact, to a curious person, there's no such thing as a stupid question. They're not afraid of being seen as dumb, or saying “I don't know.” Nor are they afraid of being wrong; they'd rather learn something new and interesting than be right all the time. They're generally good listeners too, and have the ability to listen without forming assumptions or hasty judgments.
Curious people have active rather than passive minds—they seek out new information and experiences, rather than accepting the world as it's presented to them. This means they read a lot, often on a broad range of topics, although they may also dive very deeply into topics that really excite them. As such, curious people are rarely bored. How can they be when there's always something new to learn?
Curious people are explorers, essentially—explorers of information, places, people, challenges, possibilities, and anything else that might expand their mind. As Albert Einstein once said, “I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.”
This is a fairly broad description of curious people, but I want to delve into two specific elements that I believe are essential for curiosity and continual learning. They are humility and a growth mindset. Let's start with humility.
Being humble—basically, to be free from pride and arrogance—is central to curiosity, because it tells us that we don't know everything there is to know. It tells us that we can stand to learn more, do more, and become more. Humility is often confused with a lack of confidence or self-belief, when in fact the opposite is true. Humble people recognize their strengths as well as their weaknesses, but they don't seek to hide their weaknesses, which are, after all, just opportunities to grow. This inner confidence is why a humble person has no fear of looking stupid or asking “stupid” questions—it's all part of growing.
Humility is an especially important quality—albeit not an immediately obvious one –for leaders and managers to cultivate (see Chapter 15, “Leadership Skills”). In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins identifies two traits that are common among CEOs of organizations that transitioned from average market performance to superior performance. Personal humility was one of those traits. (The other was indomitable will.) Think about it for a second; humble people are more likely to listen to what others have to say, to embrace feedback, and to work well with others—because humble people aren't under the illusion that they're the smartest person in the room.
We'll talk more about practical steps to ignite curiosity later in the chapter, but adopting a humble mindset is certainly an important first step. If you believe you have much to learn from others, you're more likely to feel that desire to learn.
Psychologist Carol Dweck coined the phrase “growth mindset” in her groundbreaking book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. If you haven't yet read this book, I highly recommend it as part of your continual learning journey. In Mindset, Dweck argues that success doesn't come from intelligence, talent, or education; it comes from having the right mindset—specifically, a growth mindset. This is backed up by her many years of research showing that the attitudes of students—in particular, their attitude to failures and setbacks—had a significant impact on their achievement.
Someone with a growth mindset believes they have the ability to grow, improve, and learn. They see obstacles, failures, and challenges as a chance to grow. And, importantly, they believe that, while everyone has inherent qualities and traits, success comes from constant personal development and continual learning. This is in contrast to someone with a fixed mindset, who believes they're limited by fixed, inherent traits and abilities that can't be changed or improved. Setbacks and failures, however small, can be devastating to someone with a fixed mindset, regardless of how talented or intelligent they are, because they believe that if they fail at something, it's because they lack the natural talent to succeed.
In the fixed mindset, you've either got it or you ain't. In the growth mindset, even the most basic abilities can be developed with hard work.
Of course, most people don't fall hard and fast into either a growth or fixed mindset. For most of us, we sit somewhere on the spectrum between the two, perhaps sometimes leaning more one way than the other.
Think about times when you've exhibited a fixed mindset. For example, maybe you've caught yourself saying something like, “Ugh, I can't do math.” Adopting a growth mindset, you'd instead say, “I can't do math yet. But I can learn,” because almost anything can be learned and improved with practice. I've noticed there's a lot of emphasis on this mindset—this notion that you don't know X, Y, or Z yet—in UK primary schools, which is interesting to see. As adults we can certainly all benefit from acknowledging our weaknesses or gaps in knowledge, without being limited by them—because we always have the ability to improve.
If humility will help you stay curious, having a growth mindset will help you commit to a journey of continual, lifelong learning. I'll talk about how to cultivate this mindset later in the chapter.
Before we move on, let me quickly acknowledge that curiosity doesn't always manifest as a positive desire to accumulate intellectual knowledge or to experience interesting new things. Someone who watches reality TV (yes, we've all done it) might be doing so because they're curious about the lives of the people on screen. Every tabloid story about a celebrity's love life is playing on readers' curiosity. It's easy to see how curiosity can tip over into gossip or nosiness (which is, after all, a desire to learn—it's just misdirected towards things that are unimportant or personal). So when I talk about asking lots of questions as a key trait of curious people, I'm not talking about prying.
As Sir Ken Robinson, a key figure in education, put it, “Curiosity is the engine of achievement.” In other words, it's a natural driving force that propels us forwards, on to success and personal fulfillment. For this reason alone, I believe we all have an obligation to stay curious. Where would we end up without that natural driving force? Stuck in a rut, probably. Bored, no doubt. Overtaken by changes in our job and industry, for sure.
If that isn't enough to convince you, here are some other reasons to prioritize curiosity and continual learning:
All things considered, curiosity is important for success and satisfaction, not just in any job but in life in general. For me, it's the key to personal growth.
And for organizations, fostering curiosity is all part of driving business performance—in fact, curiosity is much more important to business performance than originally thought.2 This is probably because curiosity helps people within the organization adapt to change, make better decisions, and come up with more inventive solutions.
Now it's time to explore practical ways for individuals and organizations to cultivate curiosity and lifelong learning.
Let's start with humility, because that's one of the driving factors of curiosity:
Cultivating a growth mindset is key to continual learning:
And here are some general tips for developing your curiosity and continual learning:
I'd also like to say a few words about fostering creativity in children, because it's a topic that's close to my heart. If you have children (or work with children), do encourage them to ask questions, try new things, read books beyond what they're told to read at school, take up new hobbies, and so on. Praise their hard work rather than inherent abilities. (For example, say something like “You did so well on your spelling test. You must have worked really hard to learn those words,” as opposed to “You did so well on your spelling test. You're so clever.”) Also, remember the power of yet in conversations with your children; when they say they don't know or can't do something, add the word “yet” on the end. Keep doing it until they roll their eyes, then do it some more. And of course, do the same when you talk about your own skills and knowledge.
It's really important that companies and leaders encourage curiosity and continual learning in their teams. A great way to do this is to celebrate learning and effort instead of just celebrating outcomes or output (for example, by linking performance evaluations to learning goals). As part of this, you can let employees broaden their interests and define their own learning goals. You want to encourage self-motivated learning, but the organization will no doubt need to invest in more formal learning and upskilling resources as well.
You can also hire for curiosity, by making curiosity one of the attributes you assess candidates for.
And of course, you'll want to build a culture where people are encouraged to speak up and ask questions—without fear of feeling silly. Leaders can model this in their own behavior, especially if they practice humility. And remember, the language that leaders use matters (see Chapter 15). So rephrase failures as learning opportunities, and remember the power of yet. If people don't know how to do something, they just don't know how to do it yet.
Let's quickly recap the key points on curiosity and continual learning:
Curiosity and continual learning are obviously helpful when it comes to navigating changes in life and at work—especially if you're willing to continually invest in your skills and knowledge. In the next chapter, we'll explore other ways individuals and organizations can embrace change.