What one habit can make you happier and perform better at work? According to a new study, intellectual curiosity may be the key. The 2022 research, which was published in European Medical Journal, revealed that employees who report higher levels of curiosity are more likely to be engaged and find meaning in their work, leading to higher levels of job satisfaction and performance.
Other studies have corroborated these results, including one by Harvard University’s Francesca Gino, who surveyed 3,000 employees about why curiosity matters in the workplace. Gino’s “Business Case for Curiosity” in Harvard Business Review found that 92% of respondents viewed curiosity as “a catalyst for job satisfaction, motivation, innovation, and high performance.”
Lauren Henkin, founder and CEO of The Humane Space — a wellness and education app designed to foster curiosity — says there’s an “overwhelming correlation between curiosity and overall job satisfaction,” stating that a more curiosity-driven corporate culture improves job satisfaction, performance, innovation and desire to continue working for the company.
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Can Intellectual Curiosity be Taught?
Henkin believes that curiosity doesn’t need to be taught because “it’s something that is innately within all of us,” noting that cognitive scientist and researcher Elizabeth Bonawitz compares curiosity to sensations like hunger or thirst.
“We often think of curiosity as reserved only for childhood,” Henkin says. “But curiosity doesn’t end with childhood; it actually increases as we age. The only thing that changes is how we practice curiosity — younger adults prefer more interactive activities, while adults practice more passive ones, like reading.”
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How Can You Cultivate Intellectual Curiosity?
With these points in mind, you can take steps to become more intellectually curious. Henkin recommends the following strategies to boost curiosity:
Take brain breaks. At work, we often move from one problem-solving endeavor to another. A great way to prompt intellectual curiosity is to encourage employees to take brief brain breaks throughout the day.
“In the same way that physical fitness coaches encourage us to get out of our chairs and walk, it’s also important to exercise and recharge the mind,” Henkin explains. “We all need breaks during the day, and we can mistakenly attribute the need for them to procrastination. Taking purposeful pauses help our brains focus, especially in tackling complex problems.”
As an example, she notes that even spending five minutes during the workday to delve into a personal passion will give your brain the healthy break it needs. “It might be reading an article on a new gardening technique, watching a video on astronomy or listening to a unique sound experience,” Henkin says.
Incorporate awe. Research shows that people who more frequently experience awe — or the sensation of vastness — tend to be more curious. Henkin calls awe a “cousin to curiosity,” pointing out that some of the great scientific breakthroughs throughout history have come about through awe as well as curiosity. While many organizations reserve the potential to experience awe only for special events — like holding a corporate retreat in a beautiful location or bringing in experts to speak about inspiring topics — she recommends trying to incorporate awe into the everyday.
“For employees, quick 5-10 minute outdoor walks can be an incredible way to experience awe, increase curiosity and improve physical and mental well-being,” Henkin says. “Awe doesn’t have to be reserved for monumental places like the Grand Canyon — it can be induced by looking at the wings of a butterfly in your backyard.”
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How to Improve Employee Engagement
Low intellectual curiosity often leads to lack of engagement, which in a vicious circle can fuel quiet quitting. As employers and leaders look to reverse this trend and create a culture of innovation with happy, motivated employees, bumping up opportunities to tap into curiosity and awe can be an effective solution for how to improve employee engagement.
Henkin suggests two key methods to reverse quiet quitting: celebrating personal passions and leveling the communication field. For the first strategy, she notes that The Humane Space has a dedicated Slack channel to celebrate personal passions.
“Many of our staff members are multi-talented and have varied interests — an executive who is a gourmet chef, a writer who is a musician and an editor who is an artist,” she says. “By celebrating employee passion pursuits, we’ve increased their connection to our company while encouraging curiosity and expansive thinking.”
The Humane Space also uses existing communication channels to open the lines of communication between remote workers and encourage connectedness on what Henkin refers to as a “level plane.”
“Part of how we support other companies is by prompt dialogue on topics unrelated to typical workplace conversation,” she says. “This diversity in conversation helps connect teams in a social way while enabling workers at the lowest level of an organization to communicate with members in the C-suite, allowing both groups to connect without organizational hierarchy impeding the conversation.”
By making corporate culture more driven by intellectual curiosity, employers have the chance to reengage employees and reverse the trend of quiet quitting, while improving their staff’s job performance, satisfaction, innovation and feelings of connectedness.
“The more we help employees connect with each other on a personal level, encourage questions to be asked and open channels for cross-departmental contribution, the greater the incentive to work, create and thrive,” Henkin says.
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How Curiosity Boosts Employee Engagement and Work Performance originally appeared on usnews.com
