22 Jul The power of curiosity and care
Two things we don’t see often enough in organisational life – yet crave – are curiosity and care. In our recent work across team development, leadership and change these two ideas have been bubbling up for us.
There is something about the underlying value of curiosity and care, for self and others, which makes an enormous difference.
For more than 2000 years, and still today, we feel the consequences of putting systems over people, or productivity over humanity. We somehow still need reminding that care and curiosity are engine rooms of greatness.
As far back as 1938 Rudolf Rocker wrote “People forgot that industry is not an end in itself, but … a means to insure … material subsistence and … the blessings of a higher intellectual culture. Where industry is everything and man is nothing begins the realm of a ruthless economic despotism whose workings are … disastrous…” Today there is the “duty of care” in South African law that places a responsibility on every business owner, and every person to keep others around us safe.
That is not to say that everyone has the capacity to give care – many are overwhelmed, and many don’t have the “bandwidth” to do more than cope with what they are facing. Those that don’t care for themselves have no care to give. However, we understand (on some level) that caring about the well-being of others is foundational to a good life. In South Africa we recognise this kind of care as our “Ubuntu” and celebrate it as a proud South African tradition. That kind of care is useful in leaders and in those who are asked to support organisational change.
We also look at care’s cousin – curiosity, or the need to understand how and why something is supposed to work, or even how people are supposed to cope. Aristotle believed that the desire for knowledge is natural for human beings. When it comes to our organisational life and the work of leaders and change supporters, we might satisfy our curiosity through conversation.
To lead, or to support organisational change, enough people must get answers to questions like “Why? Why Now? How?” – and those questions need to make sense to different people who have different motivations and different life circumstances. Each is curious in their own way, and each can only satisfy that curiosity in conversation with others. No email can solve everyone’s curiosity.
Some say that there’s no time for conversation. What they are really saying is that there is no time to understand – and that is the beginning of organisational decay. That kind of belief – that the organisation does not allow us to satisfy curiosity through conversation – is what leads us to “ruthless economic despotism whose workings are (…) disastrous.”
As human beings, we thrive in healthy organisational life, and we wither in unhealthy organisational life. Organisations that invite, enjoy, and celebrate both care and curiosity will find themselves better led, and more able to change as the world changes around them. In modern times, Organisation Development practitioners have understood this and developed ways to build community in the most clinical of organisations.
If you are interested in our thoughts and our work, reach out to us to see what we can do with you. We work with strategy development, organisational design, leadership, and team development.
If you are wondering how to lead, or to change well, we would love to explore those questions with you. As a first step, please join our free, monthly, online “conversation Café’s” where we explore interesting “Small bites” of large conversations. Our next WorldsView Café conversation on 23 July is “Dealing with Poor Performance”. This month it is hosted by Craig Yeatman (WorldsView) and our special guest Nevern Subermoney (Clinical Psychologist). Nevern brings clinical expertise in human behaviour and motivation; Craig brings decades of experience in organisational design, development, and change. They are looking at why some organisations and some people struggle to deal with poor performance.
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Written by: Craig Yeatman