Are you there with curiosity

Or did critique and complaint show up instead? 

There can be an easier, default response to be right ... by pointing out the wrong. 

But these times of extreme change and uncertainty require a greater openness of mind, a willingness to wonder and a greater sense of possibility. 

Our curiosity bias is there. We think, ponder and are curious about many, many things. 

How can we be curious about the things that might benefit from our curiosity? 


1. Do we bring curiosity to potentially boring meetings? 

Do we think:
“OMG this is so dull and boring; they are a hopeless leader.”

Or do we think:
“Hmmm, how could I help bring greater engagement or contribute to higher interest - for myself and others? What else is possible? What could I do here?”


2. Do we bring curiosity to a dense information pack?

Do we think:
“Ugh what waffle. Pages of it! They’ve missed the point. They’ve got no idea.”

Or do we think:
“Hmmm I wonder what the intention is? What’s the main point here? How can I best make sense of this?”


It may be easier to critique but the better, and more powerful work is in curiosity. 

Be there with curiosity. 

Move beyond the clichés

- Let’s take it offline 
- I hear what you’re saying
- Let’s car park it 
- I’ll take it on board

These meeting clichés can be said to dismiss, defer or redirect attention. 

We might be economical, to “keep things moving”, so we use clichés for convenience. 

But they’re overused, unoriginal and predictable. 

Clichés might be convenient for you but they’re not so good for genuine, human conversations and interactions. 

People zone out. It doesn’t connect. 


Why not say what a human would say to another human, in a normal conversation style. 

Speak originally and genuinely, leaving ‘cliché city’ behind! 

The distances between us call for greater humanity and originality.

In a world where connection with each other has been impacted, it’s worth us trying to communicate in more human ways ... not less. 

Frame the reason

Received an invitation for a meeting recently and there’s nothing but a vague title of the meeting? 

The convener or caller of the meeting may know what the meeting is all about... but those expected to attend may not. 

Fast forward to the actual meeting, and it’s worth explaining some more : why we’re meeting, what we’re going to do and how we’ll do it. 

When you’ve got a room (or zoom) full of people, they need to know what this is about and why they should care. 


FRAME the reason you’re all there, what’s behind, what’s ahead and what you’re expecting or hoping for. 

That frame is a structure, a context and a framework. It supports a system. 

And that meeting is a system. 

Frames are powerful Sensemaking tools, engaging people and switching on their curiosity. 

And they’re too often left out of the work we’re trying to do together. 

Remember, you might understand why ... but they may not. 

Thankfully it’s easy fixed - with a decent frame. 

Everything is an idea

Our opinions are ideas. 
Messages are ideas too. 
Statements and questions are. 

Movies are ideas. 
Products and services are as well. 
Blogs, posts and comments are. 

Our opinions and beliefs are ideas. 
Same with our impressions and perspectives. 

Ideas are everywhere. 

They’re how we understand what something is and how we communicate about it. 

Don’t be too upset if what you’re trying to communicate doesn’t change someone’s opinion immediately. It’s your idea, landing up against their ideas. 

We’re presented with so many ideas every day, it’s no wonder some of them don’t get through!

It may take a little while or some repeated attempts. 

Our world is a big mix of ideas, hitting up against one another, circling, collecting in groups, moving, swarming and changing shape. 

Get more of your ideas out into circulation and there’s more of a chance for happy collisions, random landings and repeated connections. 

It’s most certainly a numbers game. 

The skill of generation

One of my previous job roles was in healthcare, leading the Community Relations team at Peninsula Health. 

A big part of the role was crafting information about public health issues for the community, media, employees and stakeholders. 

I was helping the radiology team communicate about CT and nuclear medicine scans. 

The head Radiologist said ‘Give me an X-ray or a scan and I can write a report about it, but you’ve just made something out of nothing’. 

There were a few facts to work with, but yes, I’d generated the rest. 

This is a skill; to be able to take an idea or a concept and to make sense of it, to generate an explanation, a story, a blog (or a LinkedIn post!)

The more regularly you generate, the better you can get at it. 

While you might be waiting for all the facts to come in before you create, or you’re following a formulaic template to create it quicker, the best generation comes when you step into the shoes of your audience. 

You answer the questions they might have and expand on information that addresses their concerns and curiosities. 

This isn’t just generation for the sake of content creation. 

It’s generation ... with great consideration.