Secret 1

CURIOSITY

Be the Customer

Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.

—ARNOLD EDINBOROUGH

Carl Rogers had an eccentric curiosity. He and I had lunch at a restaurant near the beach at La Jolla, California, where he lived and worked at the Center for the Studies of the Person. It was the early 1980s; Dr. Rogers was considered one of the most renowned psychologists on the planet. We were strangers as the salad was served; we were intimate friends by the time the waiter brought the check. Between courses, he was charmingly open, wonderfully authentic, and as warmhearted as a kitten.

“You are the oldest?” he asked. When I nodded in the affirmative, he said, “I was the middle child of six; I sometimes felt insignificant. What does ‘oldest’ feel like?” We had just started the appetizer and I already felt I was with an old friend who needed me. His queries were random, asymmetrical, sometimes out of left field, yet always with the reciprocity of a mirror. He did not interview; we explored with the casualness and cordiality of a conversation about a book or movie we both enjoyed. His curiosity was exhilarating, valuable, and new. The conversation felt like wandering in a magical forest rather than staying up on the main road.

Curiosity is fundamentally an optimistic treasure hunt—a gallant search that occurs without proof or guarantee. Curiosity is a human itch in search of a scratch. It reflects a yearning to know, not in a pious or smug way, but rather like the resolution of emotional dissonance—a familiar tune that stops before the last bar. Curiosity may have been death to the cat, but it is the birthplace of ideas. And it is a static state, like hunger, desire, or affinity, until it is activated. Curiosity in action feeds the yearning. We start here because curiosity is the secret map to accessing and mining your customer’s imagination.

Curiosity shows up in three ways: eccentric listening, anthropological witnessing, and unleashed and unfiltered inquiry (figure 3). “Eccentric” means off center or from a unique angle, like my conversation with Dr. Rogers; “anthropological” suggests viewing with the heart of a social anthropologist who seeks to interpret, not evaluate; and “unleashed” (i.e., assertive or bold) and “unfiltered” (i.e., without bias or defense) suggest an authentic search rather than a fair weather one.

FIGURE 3. Curiosity revealed

The function of eccentric listening in innovation is to be a catalyst to insight, not just understanding. Insight is the “aha” we get when the “why” is revealed, not just the “what,” when implication and appreciation are surfaced, not simply comprehension. We can half-listen our way to a superficial understanding. But eccentric listening positions a relationship to operate more on the plane of unending mental lights turning on. While obviously enriching the relationship, it also helps scaffold a performance stage for an alliance of innovation.

The practice of curiosity also requires assertive witness to the customer’s world much as an anthropologist eagerly seeks to understand a culture without letting an egocentric or ethnocentric orientation shape a judgment. It is the pursuit of something potentially very valuable and, as such, much like a treasure hunt. It entails watching the customer in action; gaining deep knowledge of the customer’s setting; and reading the norms, customs, emotional cues, and guideposts that shape customer attitudes and behaviors.

Inquiry is generally viewed as asking for information. However, in the context of co-creation partnering, it is much more. It is questioning to confirm clarity, querying to increase understanding, and probing to solicit feedback. Franklin P. Jones comically put his finger on the challenge of genuine inquiry when he said, “Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.” Groucho Marx had a similar witty view: “People say I don’t take criticism very well, but I say, ‘What the hell do they know?’”

The opposite of curiosity is not indifference. The opposite is a judgmental orientation to life. People without curiosity tend to be opinionated, hypercritical, and obstinate in their views. They often scrutinize their world in absolutes, not with a sense of humility and wonderment. They are reticent to change and defensive of their positions. All these features are detriments to innovation since they are closed to newness and change.

Curiosity takes pacing the provider-customer dialogue so its ebb and flow is not governed by interest (which is omnipresent) but rather by the collective and mutual desires of the parties involved. It is an exchange that facilitates passion, kindles free thinking, and shuns judgments that retard, rebuke, or restrain. In a word, it is welcoming. An egalitarian playground, its dynamism and inventiveness invite serendipity and champion whimsy.

What follows are three chapters designed to more deeply examine perspectives, practices, and tools valuable in applying curiosity to customer hopes and aspirations for an innovative outcome.