This is the fifth article in a series about strengthening your small business’s core values.

If you’ve spent any amount of time with four-year-olds, you know their favorite question is why. They want to know why they have to wear socks or why birds fly or why they can’t fly. During this stage of a child’s development, parents often become exasperated by the sheer quantity of questions lobbed their way every moment of the day. 

Children have a natural and insatiable curiosity. Asking questions is how kids learn about themselves and the world around them. Curiosity fades with age, according to Robert Stokoe, who is the director of the Jumeirah English-Speaking Schools in Dubai, United Arab Emirates:

“Three year olds, on average, ask their parents about one hundred questions a day, every day! However by the time they are ten to eleven years of age they’ve pretty much stopped asking. Of even greater concern is that by the age of twenty five only two per cent can think outside the box, curiosity seldom survives into adulthood. (Keen 1973). As we grow up, we start believing the answers are more important than the questions.”

Did you catch that? A lack of curiosity causes all kinds of trouble for us adults. We stop asking questions, fail to think outside the box, and settle for easy answers (even if they are subpar solutions). Without curiosity, adults miss out on a world of interesting ideas and possible solutions. 

So you can also see how a lack of curiosity at work can be so detrimental to business success. Your business needs all the fresh ideas and creative thinking it can get! That’s why curiosity is one of our core values here at Officeheads. We frame it like this:

Yeah, but Why?

I want the Officeheads team to embrace curiosity so that we serve our clients the best solutions to help them reach their business goals. But that’s not possible without three things:

#1 Take the Time
If you want your team to be curious, be ready to invest some time. Being curious means slowing down to assess options, ask more questions, and do a little research. It may feel like a waste of time. But curiosity helps you find the best solution for your business, which allows you to reach your goals down the road.

#2 Change the View
One way to cultivate curiosity is by seeing a situation from another perspective. I always recommend taking three steps back, figuratively speaking, so that you see a fresh angle or a bigger picture. By changing your viewpoint, you can see what was once hidden, whether that’s potential dangers or solutions. 

#3 See the Impact
Another way to gain perspective is to assess how your decisions, behaviors, and words affect those you work with or for. We all have blindspots. When we get curious about our own, we can learn and grow to make our team more successful as a whole.

A posture of curiosity will do wonders for your business. You’ll find the best solutions, discover hidden potential, and grow beyond your blindspots. Curiosity will have a marked impact on your business’s bottom line and set you on the path to future success.

If you need some help cultivating curiosity in your business, Officeheads can help. Our team is ready to ask the questions that will lead to a winning financial mindset. Reach out today to learn more!