Anyone who has spent time with young children knows their insatiable appetite for asking questions. Their curiosity is boundless, their desire to understand the world unfiltered by fear of judgment or the expectation that they should already know the answers.
I recently revisited some diaries I kept while my son was growing up. The quality and frequency of his questions leapt from the page, bringing back memories of his relentless pursuit of understanding. At three years old, his inquiries were both profound and amusing:
🔹 How does the sun stay up in the sky?
🔹 How big is gravity?
🔹 Is there indoors and outdoors gravity?
🔹 How do people keep working and breathing without batteries?
🔹 How does a jellyfish eat if it has no mouth?
🔹 How does food turn into poo?
No wonder I sometimes felt exhausted!
His natural inclination toward Socratic learning served him well as a student, just as it does now in his role as a CTO and co-founder of a data warehouse optimisation startup.
But what if we never lost that childhood curiosity? What if we continued to ask questions unbridled by the fear of appearing ignorant or being judged? How might our lives, careers, and innovations be different?
The Power of Questions
We often think intelligence is about having the right answers, but what if the real key to progress lies in asking better questions?
🔹 Benjamin Zander, in The Art of Possibility, challenges us to ask: "What assumptions am I making, that I’m not aware I’m making, that give me what I see? "This profound question invites us to step beyond our default perspectives and challenge the unseen mental models shaping our reality. True curiosity means staying with the question, resisting the urge to retreat into certainty, and tolerating the discomfort of not yet knowing.
🔹 Alan Sieler, drawing on Rafael Echeverría’s ontological coaching work, highlights how our moods deeply influence our capacity to question and explore. Curiosity, he suggests, is not just a mindset but a way of being, one that fosters openness, engagement, and discovery. When we embody curiosity, we are less defensive, more willing to embrace uncertainty, and this is reflected in our posture, muscle tension, and even our breathing.
The Challenge of Cognitive Rigidity
One of the greatest barriers to growth and innovation is our attachment to familiar narratives, what we believe to be true. The human brain craves pattern recognition, seeking coherence and reinforcing what it already believes. But what happens when new evidence disrupts that pattern?
When faced with an idea that challenges our worldview, we have two choices:
1️⃣ Dismiss it as an anomaly, reinforcing our existing beliefs.
2️⃣ Lean into curiosity, asking: What if this is true? What might I be missing?
This is where true leadership, creativity, and innovation are born.
Innovation and the Art of Asking Better Questions
In The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley of IDEO highlights that some of the best breakthroughs come not from knowing the answers but from framing the right questions.
🔹 Instead of asking, “How do we make this product better?”, innovative teams ask, “What do our customers truly need, even if they don’t yet realise it?”
🔹 Instead of asking, “Why won’t this work?”, they ask, “What if it could?”
Curiosity shifts our focus from limitation to possibility, from certainty to exploration. It invites us to see the world not as fixed but as a space of uncharted potential.
Cultivating a Mood of Curiosity
Curiosity is not just an intellectual exercise, it is an emotional and physiological state. Our body language, tone, and internal dialogue all influence how we engage with new ideas. According to Sieler, the mood of curiosity is accompanied by:
✅ An open posture, leaning in rather than withdrawing.
✅ A sense of wonder, genuinely wanting to understand.
✅ A suspension of judgment, resisting the impulse to categorize something as “right” or “wrong” too quickly.
By cultivating this state, we create the conditions for growth, innovation, and deeper human connection.
Final Thought: What Question Could Change Everything for You?
Great leaders, thinkers, and innovators don’t just have great answers, they ask better questions.
So, what’s one assumption you might be making… that you’re not yet aware you’re making? And what possibilities might emerge if you explored it with curiosity?
#Curiosity #Innovation #Leadership #GrowthMindset #Coaching