The Secret to Creative Workplaces? Curiosity

Zillable
Zillable
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read

When we think about what makes a project successful, we often think of team members who are productive, hard-working, and great at group collaboration. But how often do we consider curiosity? Recent studies show that to create productive, creative workplaces, it’s time to start recruiting curious team members.

Curiosity Piques Your Productivity

Curiosity helps team members stay more engaged in their work, according to a recent study published in a neuroscience journal.

How does curiosity help us? According to the study, it’s all about mind over matter. When we become curious, our brain chemistry changes to help us learn and remember information more easily. When your curiosity is piqued, your brain is activated in the same way that it is when you experience pleasure or rewards. If you’re working on a project that sparks your curiosity, you’re more likely to stay engaged in your work — it feels like fun.

In fact, curiosity does more than just keeping you engaged. It actually can help improve your memory. Curiosity activates the hippocampus, or the part of the brain that helps form memories. When you’re working on an engaging project, you’re more likely to remember all the details.

If you’re working on a project that sparks your curiosity, you’re more likely to stay engaged in your work — it feels like fun.

What’s more, you’re also more likely to remember incidental information that’s not related to the project — so, you’ll remember the important information about the project, but you’ll also remember what happened in the 9 am meeting this morning. It’s a win-win for staying on track.

Curiosity Inspires Your Creativity

Curiosity does more than just help you stay engaged in projects, though — it can actually make you a better problem-solver. Another recent study, published in the Personality and Individual Differences journal, shows that curiosity is correlated with inventing creative, unique ways to solve problems. People who are more curious come up with more ideas earlier on in a project. Then, as the project moves forward, those early ideas build on one another so even more ideas can be generated.

Finding (and Creating) Curious Collaborators

Based on these studies, it’s clear that curiosity is a major asset in prospective team members. So, how do you go about finding these curious, productive, and creative collaborators? Look for people who are always asking questions and sharing new ideas. As you select team members for an upcoming project, prioritize curiosity. Ask about their problem-solving process, and find out how often they come up with unique ideas. When it comes to building your team, curiosity is the path to productivity and innovation.

And if your current team has been feeling a little less creative lately, there’s some good news — creativity is a skill that you can practice and learn. How? By developing your curiosity, of course! To improve your creativity, you can focus on asking more questions and gathering as much information as you can, particularly in the early stages of a project. Sometimes, just being around other creative thinkers can help jumpstart your own innovative mind, too, so if you can pull in a new face or two, that will help boost your team creativity.

Creativity is a skill that you can practice and learn.

Where can you find all these curious people? In the digital age, it’s gotten a lot easier. Online collaboration and networking platforms like Zillable can help introduce you to other creative minds, no matter if you’re just starting to form a team or if you’re looking for fresh faces to liven up your group. Zillable’s powerful collaboration tools, like Mind Map, can help you connect with others, share ideas, and create a truly productive, creative workplace.

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Zillable

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Zillable

Zillable is the world’s first intelligent social and collaboration network that brings innovation-on-demand around the world. https://www.zillable.com

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