Most businesses understand that to survive in today’s global economy, you can’t simply expect employees to do what they’re told. Instead, it’s important to create an environment where employees can ask questions to understand why certain processes are in place, so that new ideas or approaches to improve how the organization operates can be revealed.
So how can leaders foster an environment where employees feel free to ask questions? It’s a topic I discuss in my piece “Question Authority: Encourage An Inquisitive Staff” which has been published in the July 2010 issue of the industry trade magazine, “Floral Management“.
You can read my column in this online version of the magazine, which will only be available to non-subscribers for this month, by clicking this link. (be sure use the “Zoom L” feature on the right of the screen).
I’m delighted to have the opportunity to share my insights with this magazine’s readership and I would like to thank the editorial team at “Floral Management” for inviting me to appear in their monthly column “Personnel Space”.
Hi Tanveer
As always a wonderful observation about the world of work. Weirdly enough I'm running a series of workshops on innovation and the part of the workshops that has most strongly affected the people attending has been the discussion about curiosity.
We included this as a way of saying that everyone can be innovative by being curious, asking questions and then finding ways to create change from what you've learnt.
Curiosity has resonated.
Amanda
Thanks Amanda; I appreciate that. It's amazing how we downplay the value of curiosity, of questioning whether there's another way to do things; not necessarily better, but different and how that difference opens the door to new possibilities. I think many of us fall into the trap of trying to figure out how to improve things that we forget to spend time pondering such questions as "What if?" and "Why?".
It's unfortunate that we relegate curiosity to being exclusive to childhood. If you ask me, we'd all benefit from being a little more curious about how we do things and the world around us.
Thanks again, Amanda for the kind words and for sharing your experience. Glad to hear your workshop had an impact with your audience.