Lead & cultivate a culture of curiosity

Questions are a key part of curiosity and a social signal revealing how safe the workplace is.  If we take a moment to look around our workplace, the level of questioning and inquiry in our interactions clearly shows the workplace curiosity status.

Building a workplace culture of curiosity is not simply about asking more questions……. but questions are a great place to start.

A curiosity culture that supports questions, begins with creating the conditions where people feel safe enough to think aloud, reflect honestly, challenge respectfully and learn together how to be curious and still feel safe.

In healthy workplace cultures, questions are welcomed because they are understood to be part of growth, innovation, risk management, learning and connection with questions being structurally supported through an inquiry approach.

Leaders model an inquiry approach by listening deeply, sitting with uncertainty and responding thoughtfully rather than defensively. Being vulnerable, utilising reflective practice, debriefing and collaborative meaning-making are just a few of the ways inquiry can be included.

An attuned leader understands that when people stop asking questions, it rarely means everything is fine.

In unhealthy cultures, questions become risky. Staff may fear embarrassment, dismissal, conflict, or being labelled as difficult.

Cynicism kills an enquiring mind and when people repeatedly experience:

• no follow through

• tokenistic consultation/collaboration

• ignored feedback

• repeated invalidation

• sarcastic commentary (an 'aussie go to' that doesn't belong in an inclusive workplace)

People stop asking, not because they don’t care but because hope becomes emotionally expensive.

Over time, silence becomes adaptive.

People stop asking clarifying questions, raising concerns, sharing ideas, or challenging systems that are no longer working and passive compliance, quiet quitting and transactional participation, begins to become the 'norm'.

The workplace may appear compliant on the surface while disengagement, confusion and frustration quietly grow underneath. This is a human reaction to conserve energy and wellbeing, in a place where there is no foreseeable path forward.

Some organisations focus heavily on encouraging voice through:

• suggestion boxes

• feedback surveys

• “open forums”

• concept days in place of genuine connection (e.g. pizza days, or birthday days off)

These are tools that can be used however if people do not experience:

• acknowledgement

• response/reciprocity

• integration

• relational respect

• follow through

then expression and shallow conversation alone, changes very little.

Being heard is not the same as being allowed to talk.

Curiosity cultures are built in small relational moments such as:

• how leaders respond when challenged

• whether uncertainty is treated as weakness or learning

• whether mistakes become blame or reflection

• whether feedback leads to action

• whether people feel heard, not just allowed to speak

This is where a strong question can do more than collect information. It creates reflection, connection, perspective and possibility however, not all questions are equal.

Some workplaces will only tolerate:

• procedural questions

while suppressing:

• ethical questions

• systemic questions

• emotional questions

• power-related questions

For example: A workplace may welcome:

• “Where is the form?”

but punish: 

• “Why are we doing this in a way that knowingly overloads staff?”

The second question threatens identity, power, or existing systems.

The real test of culture is:

Which questions create discomfort?

This is something an organisation/team need to make time, to explore together.

Cultures that are intentionally designed for curiosity may include:

• reflective supervision

• debriefing practices

• psychologically safe meetings

• leaders modelling uncertainty

• collaborative problem-solving

• permission to challenge respectfully

• learning reviews instead of blame reviews

• professional development plans that begin from the employee's ideas

• rotation of the team meeting chairperson

• emotional self-regulation in leadership

Practical ways leaders can cultivate curiosity include:

🍃 Ask open-ended questions instead of leading questions (see our blog titled “Collaboration starts with curiosity” to understand what an open-ended question sounds like).

🍃 Slow down the urge to immediately provide answers

🍃 Respond calmly when difficult questions arise

🍃 Invite quieter voices into discussions consistently

🍃 Treat mistakes as learning opportunities, not identity judgments or covert opportunities to performance manage

🍃 Create reflective pauses in meetings and debriefs

🍃 Model phrases like “What am I missing?” or “Help me understand your thinking”

🍃 Follow through on feedback so people see that speaking up matters

Reflections to ponder:

⭕ Are people speaking openly in meetings, or only safely after meetings?

⭕ What signals in your place may be teaching people to stay silent?

⭕ What are two things you can change today to create a culture of curiosity and invite intentional questioning?