Inquire Within: Curiosity & Leadership

A Conversation with Michelle Gale, formerly of Twitter

I spoke with Michelle Gale at Twitter on the subject of “curiosity” in 2011. I had previously seen her speak on a panel at the Wisdom 2.0 conference in Silicon Valley where she mentioned curiosity as something important to her as Twitter’s Leadership & Employee Development. This struck a chord with me from a management perspective, because I have said on more than one occasion that I work best with people who are curious (and I was intrigued to hear it is valued at Twitter). But until that moment, I hadn’t considered that curiosity is more than just an innate quality that a person has—or doesn’t have. Curiosity can be encouraged, cultivated, and exercised. (And it can be lost during times of stress.)

Michelle Gale’s Definition of Curiosity

“Curiosity means to constantly ask questions and not assume we know. Curiosity is the capacity to live in the unknown, because that’s when the magic happens.”

When I have thought of curiosity in the past, I have followed the typical definition of “a strong desire to know or learn something.” I was surprised by Michelle’s definition.

How Twitter Hires for Curiosity

Given this definition of curiosity, I wondered how to recognize it in other people. When I asked how curiosity might show up in a job interview at Twitter, Michelle told me that Twitter looks for indications of “outside passions,” be it the engineer who co-founded an elementary school because he didn’t like what was on offer in his district, or someone with a passion project, avocation or side business. Twitter looks for these things because they mean people are willing to take risks and make mistakes as they follow their paths.

Twitter values passion with curiosity because this combination is where you find innovation. Twitter values risk-taking because this is how we learn: e.g. there is an upside-down poster in the Twitter office that reads “let’s make better mistakes tomorrow.”

As Twitter grows into a large, established company, perhaps risk won’t be as rewarding or important, but today it is the lifeblood. Incidentally, Marty Cagan writes similarly about innovation at large companies on his SVPG blog; it’s worth a look if you’re … well … curious.

Curiosity & Mindfulness in Leadership

The second part of Michelle’s definition of curiosity led me to ask how it shows up in leadership & management, and how we might foster that in ourselves and our colleagues.

Ability to Wonder

The key to living in the unknown is maintaining an “ability to wonder.” In our society, we are raised with the value of knowing (the opposite of curiosity). To undo this knowing, cultivate a state of “unknowing” by actively wondering. “Great leaders live this way,” says Michelle.

Curiosity Under Pressure

In times of stress we are most likely to lose our curiosity. A lot of Michelle’s day-to-day focus at Twitter is to help people stay curious under pressure (which is almost always in a lot of offices). Without curiosity, our thinking gets small, our vision gets narrow, and we make mistakes. She says “at the management level, curiosity is critical”; for example, in confrontations, conflicts or crises, effective leaders have to be able to ask themselves “what’s my piece in causing this breakdown?” Constantly asking questions, even if only to yourself, leads to valuable inquiry, reflection & insight. She went on to say that “other people are triggered by visible signs of stress in leaders, particularly at the C-level.” To put these values into practice is especially valuable in the leadership of a company. (I remind myself of Dee Hock’s definition of leadership—”go before and show the way”—and that the company leadership could be anybody in the organization.)

How To Be Mindful and Curious with “Centering”

To cultivate mindfulness and a state of wondering, Michelle recommends a centering exercise from her teacher, Wendy Palmer of Conscious Embodiment. Michelle tells me “I do this while walking down the hall, or sitting at my desk. Keep your eyes open; it’s important to stay in the world. Let your mind ask your body a question. I ask myself ‘what would it be like if there were a little more spaciousness … a little more ease in my being?’.”

The centering is important so that you can practice in your body how to be mindful under pressure. “We can’t change our minds with our minds alone,” says Wendy Palmer. By her math, you can take just three seconds to center, and if you do this ten times a day—that’s less than a minute—you can start a practice that will change the way you work and the way you live. Take five seconds … do it twenty times a day … and you’re off to a great start!

Three-Second Centering

1. Posture: inhale, lengthen the spine, exhale, drop the chest.
2. Expansiveness: expand your energy to fill the space and include the others within it.
3. Settle & Relax.

Takeaways

Be curious. Especially under pressure.

Live in the unknown.

Maintain an ability to wonder.

Stay present and centered.

After our talk, I recommended some favorite resources to Michelle that I use and love: Time Out, OMMWriter, and 750Words.com. (I now also use Day One app for Mac and iPhone.)

Update

Here’s a great article on curiosity from Sarah Wachter-Boettcher and the folks at Contents Magazine: On Content and Curiosity.