Why curiosity and questioning drive innovation more than expertise
Succeeding in the current business climate may have little to do with what you know, and much more to do with your ability to find out what you don’t know. In other words, asking questions may be one of the best tools for innovation.
The Harvard Business Review posed the question, “how do innovators think?” to two business school professors, Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University and Hal Gregerson of INSEAD, who together conducted a 6-year survey of over 3000 creative executives to try to explain how the “innovator’s DNA” works.
Gregerson summarized all the skills necessary in one word: inquisitiveness. High on Dyer’s list was questioning: “an ability to ask what if, why and why not questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture.”
Redesigning Business Education
This means that the standard discipline-based approach to business school – with singularly focused classes in finance, accounting and marketing – is growing obsolete. According to The New York Times, some of the most prestigious business schools are crafting a more multi-disciplinary, holistic and liberal arts approach to business school.
For instance, Yale University has added a “problem framing” course to help students test assumptions and redefine problems. The Rotman School of Management in Toronto is teaching the fundamentals of integrative thinking. The Graduate Business school at Stanford University now requires first-year students to take a course in critical and analytical thinking.
Creating a Culture of Curiosity
Creating an environment where people feel comfortable asking questions is key. Professor Dyer says most people are too careful about asking questions, “for fear of looking stupid, or because they know the organization won’t value it.” This fear shuts down the overall critical thinking quotient, and closes doors that might otherwise have been open to new ideas and solutions.
And the best way to create a climate where people dare to ask questions and feel valued for their curiosity and inquisitiveness? Keep asking.
Know Further: Asking for more on the subject? Try Asking the Right Questions, by M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley.
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