Being Curious Can Change the Way You Lead — Museumable

The more you learn about the people you interact with, the less chance you’ll have of misunderstanding one another and encountering conflict. Curiosity invites tolerance, flexibility and cooperation-key assets for doing business in the 21st century. Today’s toxic leadership doesn’t value these traits; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. We see top leaders in both the private and public sectors who rule with control, prejudice and greed. This model is very effective at deteriorating trust, creating conflict and ultimately total financial and organizational chaos. Not many dictators winning the Nobel Peace Prize or a Lifetime Achievement Award…

We are all biased-it’s just human nature. We seek familiarity and form tribes; so it’s natural to perceive those outside of our tribe as threats. But prejudice or oppression-race, gender, age, intelligence; religious, social, cultural, economic, etc.-must not only be discouraged but proactively remedied. For example: it’s no longer enough to be “not racist”; we must be actively anti-racist instead. The goal isn’t to eliminate bias but to recognize it, call it out and challenge it in order to see things through a clearer lens. And then make decisions.

The explosion of information technology has happened quickly (within a few decades) whereas human evolution takes much longer (several millennia). Thanks to the internet, we are able to interact with almost anyone anywhere in the world. Humans haven’t developed the enormous capacity of tolerance and compassion needed to thrive in that reality…yet.

“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.”

Sir Ken Robinson, author, speaker, advisor on education in the arts

Fostering Tolerance

Everyone is unique. We all have opinions, preferences and world views. And that’s OK. It’s not OK to tolerate disrespect or hostility towards others for those differences. Everyone should feel safe to be themselves without fear of judgement or prejudice (or worse). Despite many decades and movements that support this vision of society, we’re still so far away. It’s a complex problem to solve, but we do know some ways that can help. Intolerance generally stems from fear and ignorance so we must encourage curiosity and understanding. One small step we use in our workshops is to explore one work of art and share all the various truths that emerge for participants — everyone has a different experience, yet they are all correct. There’s no right or wrong, but room for everyone’s opinion and voice. One point of view does not devalue another.

As more and more people of different cultures, values and languages work together, it’s vital to have leaders that address any biases that hinder great work. We are often told to avoid certain topics in conversation like religion or politics but what if we learned to discuss controversial topics in a way that respects differing opinions and beliefs? We would built the skills necessary to have constructive conversations that could lead to innovative resolutions. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Flexibility & Failure

Change is inevitable and adaptability is essential. The important thing here is to be willing to evaluate and adjust as needed. Running a company is like sailing a boat — it requires constant course correction … and maybe a strong stomach for all the ups and downs of the obstacles (waves) that happen along the way.

Don’t be the stubborn boss who rules with an iron fist; it’s unlikely to garner the respect or results desired. Successful organizations encourage experimentation, recognizing failure as bumps on the road to greatness. Mistakes can be costly, but they are rarely fatal. Oftentimes we want to avoid failure and so we don’t even try. But the truth is that success and failure both result in progress. Lifting the veil of shame associated with error, to normalize experimentation, regardless of the result is a good place to start.

Cooperation

It’s going to take a global ripple of awareness to shift the human psyche from fear, hate, and violence to curiosity, tolerance, and compassion. But let’s just start with the people we interact with at work and at home. How can you encourage more cooperation?

Remember that the goal here is to acknowledge and respect our differences in order to maintain a relatively peaceful equilibrium of the common good; it’s NOT to get everyone to agree on everything all the time-that’ll never happen. It helps to see that ideas, opinions, problems and solutions are all separate from ourselves. We often take criticism of an idea as a judgement of us as humans. But what if we detached ourselves from that notion? How would you operate differently in the world? I’d be curious to know…

#curiosity #emotionalintelligence #leadership #tolerance #flexibility #failure #cooperation #artmuseums

Originally published at https://www.museumable.com on May 20, 2020.