Insatiable Curiosity

I picked the topic because I saw many new professionals become frustrated by their inability to get things done, to change policy or to understand decisions being made by people who were more senior or had more authority in the organization. To be fair, all of us who work in large organizations experience all of these frustrations at times. But I have found that one’s ability to manage and move beyond the frustration of the moment and find ways to keep engaged in the work is an essential skill for a sustained career. For me a critical step in developing this skill is becoming a student of your organization.

Sometime over the last few months, I came across the idea that one of the reasons so many people fall victim to conspiracy theories is that they don’t understand how things work. I think the corollary may be that they don’t try (and probably are often discouraged from trying) to understand how things happen in complex organizations and our ever more complex world.

One of the most fascinating parts of working with a large number of colleges and universities in my consulting work, is coming to understand how many different ways we can design organizations to do essentially the same work. My experience even before consulting taught me that having a deep understanding of one institution of higher learning makes it easier to understand any of them. Yes, there are important differences in culture, traditions, quirks and even mission, but all of these are learnable. And the more you’ve learned and adjusted your thinking and behavior to account for them, the more you can be effective in a new place.

In that e-zine article I included a list of items, questions to ask, things to do (like read the campus paper and any newsletters sent out by the university – something people often see as a waste of time, but often an important way to understand what is important) I thought everyone should learn, and items to know.

Some years later, while I was vice president for Student Affairs at UTSA, I called police dispatch for help with a flat tire. Not only did the dispatcher not recognize my name, she couldn’t figure out what parking lot I was in. I thought that was a problem, but checked myself with my colleague in Business Affairs. He agreed with my expectation that not only should a dispatcher know the campus well, but they ought to know the name of the person in my position.

After that conversation, I realized I had a similar expectation. I thought staff members throughout my organization ought to know the names of several senior people on campus as well as some other important bits of information. From that realization, I took the basics of the list from the article and created a pop quiz I gave the Student Affairs Leadership Team. They didn’t have to share their results, but seeing the gaps in their own knowledge was enough of a heads up. And, yes, I told them which ones they were expected to know and which were helpful.

I’ve since used the campus-relevant quizzes for a number of groups when I lead workshops on working in complex organizations. It always creates ‘aha moments’ for groups.

And the skill that makes all this possible is developing an insatiable curiosity. We need to be willing to learn what is important in this particular organization or community. We need to learn an organization’s history and heritage, to know who the decision-makers are, and to understand how our work fits into the greater whole. We need to understand that even the most seemingly trivial bit of information can help us understand the answer to the critical result – understanding how to be effective within the organization.

Part of my thinking behind this essay was that idea about the genesis of conspiracy theories added to another comment I’ve heard in recent months. This one is that we’ve lost a common understanding of civics, of how the government works, and of our role within this very large community. So I was curious and searched on the question, “how does the government work.” I found this ‘quiz’, well really an outline from a training manual for the Social Security Administration. And it’s a good reminder of basic governmental concepts. I’ve included my quiz in the box below as well as a link to this quiz. It’s worth a few moments of your time.

As leaders we need to help others learn to be curious. We need to make sure it’s safe to ask even the most basic questions. We also need to remember to be insatiably curious ourselves. There’s always more to learn.

Take care,

Gage