Cracking the Curiosity Code: The Key to Unlocking Human Potential – An interview with Dr. Diane Hamilton

Cracking the Curiosity Code: The Key to Unlocking Human Potential – An interview with Dr. Diane Hamilton

The following is a guest blog post from by Ton Dobbe – Chief Inspiration Officer, Value Inspiration

Every week I interview entrepreneurs and experts from around the world to share their big idea about new forms of value creation and the potential we can unlock when technology augments the unique strengths of people to deliver remarkable impact.

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TTL 301 | Maintaining Motivation

Motivation Psychology with Dr. Richard Ryan and Publishing And Sales Success with Mark Bowser

What motivates you? What gets you up in the morning? We all have surely experienced being in a situation wherein we start something with a great deal of excitement and motivation only to lose that enthusiasm later on. Dr. Richard Ryan, author of the best-selling book Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development and Wellness, talks about motivation psychology. He takes us into a deeper understanding of one’s motivation and how to control and maintain it.

 

Mark Bowser teaches people and organizations how to win in selling, leadership, and customer service. He shares his fascinating experience on how he learned from the best. He is the author of multiple books including Sales Success with Zig Ziglar and Some Gave It All: Through the Fire of the Vietnam War with Danny Lane. Mark shares stories of his encounters with interesting people including the Vietnam War hero, Danny Lane.

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Curiosity: The Inspiration for Innovation, Resilience, and Sustainability

In an age of distraction, with market volatility, and constant uncertainty, organizations face challenges to their ability to maintain a resilient workforce. Issues that impact sustainability in innovation include the environment, society, and economics. In constantly changing times, taking the ground most traveled and embracing the status quo is no longer a viable option. Truly resilient organizations must embrace robust transformation. Lengnick-Hall described organizational resilience as, “the capacity to act robustly in the face of environmental turbulence and to adapt to the ongoing environmental changes.” Organizations must look to ideas never considered when developing innovation that is resilient and sustainable.   That is where curiosity can play an important role.

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TTL 274 | Conscious And Subconscious

What Motivates Our Brain with Phil Dixon and Aligning The Conscious And Subconscious with Vince Poscente

Our brain is a very complex and dynamic thing that needs to be explored in order for us to learn more about ourselves. Phil Dixon’s work focuses on understanding the motivations and different factors associated with the brain. He is the CEO and founder of the Oxford Brain Institute and is one of the first employees at Apple. Phil lets us in on his research about the brain, discussing models on how we can understand it.

 

There are just some days where we find ourselves conflicted within. We want to say yes but something inside is holding us back. This is the conscious and subconscious fighting each other within us. Vince Poscente is a Hall of Fame speaker and New York Times bestselling author. He provides his valuable wisdom about the subconscious and the conscious mind and explores the possibilities we can achieve if we can align our conscious and subconscious agendas.

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Opportunity Cost and Its Relationship to Curiosity at Work

When recently researching content for my work on curiosity, I was reminded of the importance of opportunity cost. For those not familiar with the expression, it means, “the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.” In other words, what do you give up when you make a choice of one thing over doing something else? I meet many people who become paralyzed in their decision-making process because they find weighing alternatives challenging. However, what they might forget is that indecision is a decision.

In business leaders, often think about the benefits, profits, and values of actions and choices, but they often overlook how opportunity costs can be associated with people. If people’s skills are under-utilized and they are not aligned to jobs that match their interests, it is essential to consider the opportunity cost involved.

That is why it is important to consider the value of curiosity. I found that four factors hold people back from their natural levels of curiosity. These include fear, assumptions, technology, and environment. Fear can keep people from asking questions, from researching opportunities, and from exploring their natural creativity. Assumptions that employees might not like an activity or might not be good at it can keep people disengaged from improperly matched jobs. Inability to understand technology or fear of it is often overlooked. A culture or environment that does not promote curiosity can be the one thing that keeps the competition one step ahead in the race.

The opportunity cost of not developing curiosity in our workforce can lead to catastrophic results to the economy. Employees will need to learn new skills as technology replaces less-skilled labor. Organizations might have other opportunities for people who show initiative and creativity. Individuals who fear their jobs could be in danger, need to develop foresight to be proactive to change and become indispensable to organizations.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Einstein, and others have all credited curiosity with their success. This experience drove me to determine how to ignite that desire in other people. What I discovered was that it was not enough to understand the value of curiosity; it was essential to determine the things that hold people back from being curious. That is why I created the Curiosity Code Index assessment to go along with the book, Cracking the Curiosity Code, to discover the things that impact curiosity and provide an action plan for how to improve.

Cracking the Curiosity Code and the CCI includes everything from:

  • How curiosity impacts engagement, creativity, innovation, and productivity
  • How fear, assumptions, technology, and environment (FATE) can impact curiosity
  • How to set strategies for overcoming the factors that hold people back

The book and assessment are due to be released by the end of 2018. To learn more and get notified of their release, please go to http://curiositycode.com. Consider the opportunity cost of not improving your curiosity. Can you, your company, and your employees afford it?