Sunday’s Washington Post contained an article which I believe sums up one of the greatest problems facing our organizations right now. The article was titled Our Incredible Shrinking Curiosity and went on to lament the very strong possibility that NASA will stop funding the two Voyager spacecrafts that are currently at the outer edges of our solar system. While the writer points to a growing propensity in the U.S scientific community to squeeze out curiosity-driven research in favor of specific products, profits or outcomes, he might as well have been talking about businesses in general.

Does this sound like any companies or industries you know?

Crouched today in a defensive posture, we are suffering from a lack of
confidence and a shriveled sense of the optimism that once urged us to
reach boldly into the unknown. Equally important, we seem to have
forgotten that many good things come just from being open to them,
without a formed idea of what they are or how they should come out.

Organizations today are all about deliverables: the sure things with a finely-tuned, fixed outcome. Projects are judged by these sure things, an individual’s worth is based on how they executed the deliverable. Found something interesting along the way? Want to explore a better path? Put it all aside and forget it. It’s not part of the expected outcome.

From a hiring perspective (you just knew this was coming, right?), hiring managers are in love with deliverables and narrowly defined requirements. Look at job postings these days and you’ll find a litany of mandatory experience and skills. In their mind, the hiring manager has the ideal candidate already created who just happens to have been doing the work since they exited college. Problem is there’s little room for curiosity for that professional who is making a transition. Similar skill sets and transferable experience? A passion for this new work and career? Hmmm…too difficult to connect the dots when here’s a resume of someone who has done this same work before.

The reality is that the current system does not reward folks with a wide array of skills, experiences, talents. The default is complacency where deliverables trump curiosity. If you are hiring right now, take a second look at that person coming from left field. They might just be bringing something that will reinvigorate your department, project, company, industry. Your curiosity will undoubtedly be rewarded.