Those professionals I have truly respected and admired most over the years have had many qualities: thoroughness, tenacity, resilience etc.
However, one key characteristic that is perhaps overlooked is an innate tendency to be genuinely interested in and questioning about their subject – law, medicine, accountancy or whatever.
This is about not being content with falling back on retained knowledge often learnt many years ago, or assuming every new case will ultimately be similar to the last one. It is rather looking at each professional development and each set of circumstances with a continuing curiosity that goes beyond the basic need to assimilate facts in order to understand and resolve the issue at hand.
To slightly misquote Lewis Carroll “Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”
More pertinently Bernard Baruch an American financier, stock investor, philanthropist, statesman, and political consultant in the 19th and 20th centuries said: “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.”
Bill Bryson is an excellent example of a person who has this quality of curiosity in abundance and can express it cogently – see for example his publication of A Short History of Nearly Everything, a book widely acclaimed for its accessible communication of science.
And for those of us not as naturally gifted as Isaac Newton or Bill Bryson there are ways or techniques of triggering a more curious approach to professional working life.
It seems to my slight surprise to be the topic of training programmes – see for example this article in 2016 which commences with the words: A Harris Poll survey reveals leaders often are ineffective at fostering creativity. Here’s how to create a workplace climate that encourages curiosity and rewards creativity.
I find a simple starting point to encouraging curiosity is always to ask some simple basic questions at the start of any transaction: what, who, where, when, why, how. This simple approach has surprisingly strong historical support from leading thinkers such as Cicero – see this Wikipedia article.
As the writer Arnold Edinborough said: Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.
However, one key characteristic that is perhaps overlooked is an innate tendency to be genuinely interested in and questioning about their subject – law, medicine, accountancy or whatever.
This is about not being content with falling back on retained knowledge often learnt many years ago, or assuming every new case will ultimately be similar to the last one. It is rather looking at each professional development and each set of circumstances with a continuing curiosity that goes beyond the basic need to assimilate facts in order to understand and resolve the issue at hand.
To slightly misquote Lewis Carroll “Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”
More pertinently Bernard Baruch an American financier, stock investor, philanthropist, statesman, and political consultant in the 19th and 20th centuries said: “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.”
Bill Bryson is an excellent example of a person who has this quality of curiosity in abundance and can express it cogently – see for example his publication of A Short History of Nearly Everything, a book widely acclaimed for its accessible communication of science.
And for those of us not as naturally gifted as Isaac Newton or Bill Bryson there are ways or techniques of triggering a more curious approach to professional working life.
It seems to my slight surprise to be the topic of training programmes – see for example this article in 2016 which commences with the words: A Harris Poll survey reveals leaders often are ineffective at fostering creativity. Here’s how to create a workplace climate that encourages curiosity and rewards creativity.
I find a simple starting point to encouraging curiosity is always to ask some simple basic questions at the start of any transaction: what, who, where, when, why, how. This simple approach has surprisingly strong historical support from leading thinkers such as Cicero – see this Wikipedia article.
As the writer Arnold Edinborough said: Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.
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