Observing subjective qualities in others past and present gives us a mental picture for the behaviors we want to practice. Each figure illustrates a quality researched from The Look to Craftsmen Project. When practiced as part of our day-to-day, these qualities will help us develop our mastery in our lives and work.
Curiosity 101
Image Credit: Smithsonian
“I said I could and I would. And I did.”
Nellie Bly (1864-1922) was an American journalist, industrialist, inventor, and charity worker—all unthinkable for a Victorian woman. She had herself committed to an insane asylum, circled the globe in 72 days, and worked as an elephant trainer, all for a good story. Nellie was a pioneering investigative journalist who wrote more than 600 newspaper and magazine articles, reporting on the inequalities women faced in the workplace and the legal system. When she eventually got married at the age of thirty — an old maid by the era’s standards — she helmed the management of her husband’s factory and built within it a gymnasium, library, and recreation center for the workers. In addition to her undercover work in exposing abuses in the treatment of the mentally ill, she served as a foreign correspondent in Mexico and circled the globe (in 76 days) to test the authenticity of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.
It may be tempting to think that inequality issues are behind us. Yet, as of 2020, we find ourselves cresting waves of protest from #MeToo to #BLM. Beliefs of entitlement unconsciously shape even our best-intentioned behaviors today. Women still underearn. Children are still encouraged to do activities according to their gender. Men still receive 63% of bylines and Bly’s battle cry, even 120 years later, is far from outdated and irrelevant.
To suggest she was curious is an understatement.
“What gave me the idea? It is sometimes difficult to tell exactly what gives birth to an idea. Ideas are the chief stock and trade of newspaper writers and generally they are the scarcest stock in market.”
Curiosity 101
Curiosity comes from being present, trusting, and trustworthy. Rather than impeding it, curiosity facilitates progress.
We can practically apply the idea of curiosity in our day to day lives. Our brains scan for threats and rewards five times a second. That is, it narrows in on what is certain (a closed process). Maintaining awareness and being to new ideas are open processes. We attempt these multiple mental processes—remaining open while our brains scan the environment and close off to new information—is hard to do. As managers and leaders, we are asked to remain open (while feeling threatened or nervous) and bring everyone along with us as we learn, make decisions, and rely on the interdependence of each other’s actions. That’s a tough sell, and why creating learning cultures are so hard to achieve.
We want people to be leaning in and feeling that working with us is a place of reward, not one of risk. We also understand that everyone wants to feel safe. When we make ourselves feel safe, we are doing our best work.
So how do we influence others while all this is going on? How can we work on our curiosity when we feel threatened?
PRACTICE:
How we show up influences the environment that drives engagement. We have four primary drivers that determine how we read any given situation. They are summarized here as your "C-Index":
Community. Are you with me or against me? If you are seen as being part of the team, you will be safe. If you are seen as an outsider,
Certainty. Do I know the future or don’t I? If you know the next step, you feel safe. If the path is unclear, you feel less safe.
Control. Are you more or less important than me? If the person you are talking does not recognize your role or boundaries, you will feel less safe.
Choice. Do I get a say? Your level of autonomy is critical in gauging your level of reward. The less choice you have the less safe you feel. “The ultimate freedom of creative groups is the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive. In the long run, innovation is cheap. Mediocrity is expensive—and autonomy can be the antidote.” –Tom Kelley, General Manager, IDEO
Our goal is to increase our C-Index wherever we go.
Remember that when working with other people, you are also working with our triggers as well as theirs.
Fact: I don’t tick every box on the job’s requirements.
Judgmental Thought/Assumption: I’m not qualified for the position I want.
Underlying Feeling: I have no control.
Thoughts of Curiosity: Let’s see what actually happens when I apply for it. I wonder what I’ll learn from preparing for the interview? When do I feel most confident in my thinking? my work? my abilities? Maybe it would be good to talk to a trusted friend or colleague about how they’ve had success with major career transitions?
Fact: I heard about part of the new strategic plan from peers, not from management.
Judgmental Thought/Assumption: I’m being excluded from key conversations.
Underlying Feeling: I don’t have a say.
Thoughts of Curiosity: I wonder why leadership didn’t just update us in the last status meeting? Was that the first time it happened or one of many? What circumstances would lead to briefing the team this way? Some actions might inadvertently have an impact, this wasn’t personal.
COMMIT:
[ ] I commit myself to catch myself leaping toward assumptions and start thinking of open-ended questions to ask instead. What will that look like for you?
FURTHER READING
Ten Days In A Madhouse: initially published as a series of articles; Bly later compiled the articles into a book. On an undercover assignment, she acted insane at a women's boarding house, so as to be involuntarily committed to an insane asylum. Bly investigated the reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island by experiencing them first hand. Her work led to a grand jury investigation and financial increase in the Department of Public Charities and Corrections.
The Complete Works of Nellie Bly: This collection gathers together the works by Nellie Bly, including Ten Days in a Mad-House, The Mystery of Central Park, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, and Six Months In Mexico.
George Orwell: Diaries: An author of complimentary character, investigative approach, and tone. This work offers a rare record of the beloved author’s becoming, from the evolution of his private beliefs to the formative experiences that shaped his writing and his character. In an entry dated March 5, 1936, Orwell recounts an incident while visiting the Searles — a poor family with whom he lodged during his quest to learn empathy by immersing himself in poverty and of whom he noted that he had “seldom met people with more natural decency.” Writing nearly a decade before his first big literary success with Animal Farm, a novella essentially about inequality, 33-year-old Orwell shares his unease with the gender inequality so deeply imprinted in the cultural fabric.
In her words…
“That women should work is necessary. That they should be treated with equality for their labor is just and right. There should be no difference in the recompense for work, whether done by a man or a woman, so long as it is done equally well.” — New York Evening Journal
“Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything.” —Among the Mad, Godey’s Lady’s Book (on revisiting her madhouse experience)
“Take some girls that have the ability, procure for them situations, start them on their way, and by doing so accomplish more than by years of talking.” —The Girl Puzzle, Pittsburg Dispatch
“It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world.” — Ten Days in a Mad-House
“I always liked fog, it lends such a soft, beautifying light to things that otherwise in the broad glare of day would be rude and commonplace.” —Around The World In 72 Days
“To have a good brain the stomach must be cared for.” — Ten Days in a Mad-House
“Nonsense! If you want to do it, you can do it. The question is, do you want to do it?” —Around The World In 72 Days
"How can a doctor judge a woman's sanity by merely bidding her good morning and refusing to hear her pleas for release? Even the sick ones know it is useless to say anything, for the answer will be that it is their imagination." — Ten Days in a Mad-House
"Could I pass a week in the insane ward at Blackwell's Island? I said I could and I would. And I did." — Ten Days in a Mad-House
What we don’t see on the resumes we review or the job descriptions we want is the litany of emotional entanglements we bring to our roles, uninvited, to the team and organizations we work in. Alongside technical skills, people who can master a range of subjective skills are better able to influence, deal with ambiguity, bounce back from setbacks, think creatively, and manage themselves in the presence of setbacks. In short, those who learn lead.
Observing subjective qualities in others past and present gives us a mental picture for the behaviors we want to practice. Each figure illustrates a quality researched from The Look to Craftsmen Project. When practiced as part of our day-to-day, these qualities will help us develop our mastery in our lives and work.