I was having some initial discussions in delivering a corporate training on contract management within a large scale industry building various types of hardware equipment used as sensors in mission critical environments. I was naturally curious in trying to understand more about the specific industry related terms and conditions within the contract management discipline. I dug deeper learning about the unique challenges the team faced so that I can not only just deliver a training but also exceed the expectations. In describing this training preparation and delivery to a leadership class, I mentioned curiosity is like having a beginner's mindset. I reasoned that it is like being childlike but not childish. The leadership students asked to elaborate my thoughts and I have captured our discussions here.
First of all, curiosity is the 'solution' mindset. It is not feeling the comfort of a current situation but question how could it be better! Every potential comfort that we currently relish were nothing more than an idea, that was ridiculed, experimented with failure many times, and sometimes even prohibited from trying. We all know how the right-to-free speech was dealt with death penalties as history elaborates. Edison's own quote when experimenting with the light bulb is not that he failed but he has succeeded in many ways of not making light bulb work. That curiosity is the foundation for everything!
So, what do most of these people developing drugs, designing bridges, innovating processes, creating architectures, and authoring arts and music have in common? The beginner's mindset. They ask themselves the "Why?" or "Why Not?" repeatedly like a child. I always admire the questions from the children that ask why the sky is blue, how much paint did they use, how did it become black overnight? One needs to continue to feed these questions. In my mind that beginner's mindset of being childlike is questioning everything without any judgment, bias, labeling, or stereotyping. In the explanations that we seek in subsequent experimentation or appreciative inquiry or research, we look for patterns that bring us new information, question our assumptions, or lead to serendipitous "Aha" moments!
However, in such a quest, we should not let go of the ethical obligations of doing the right thing even when it is hard. We should just fail fast but fail forward continuously learning from every experiment so that we don't risk the same failure again! Yes, not trying any risk itself is a risk but not learning from our failure and take corrective actions for future is a major hazard. So, one shouldn't be childish asking the same question repeatedly, losing focus with other distracting attractions, or avoiding something because of fear.
What do you think of my explanation? Would you add, refine, or remove something?
