Encourage curiosity and creativity

- Imagine what it would be like to have the best thinkers working to help you on your idea for change. What could be possible? You can pause the video here and really take a couple of minutes to visualize that. How do you get the best contributions from others in your vision for change? First, start with being curious. I believe each of us has a great capacity to be curious. We were as kids. I know that my parents have stories about me asking all kinds of questions. My incessant, badgering them would start with why? Why do I need to sit in the back of the car? Why do stars come out at night? I encourage you to ask your parents of stories of what you invented or imagined, or the near disasters you got into because you were curious. Here's some things to get curious about. You can get curious about the people you want to engage in your vision for change. What energizes them? What is a change that they are motivated to make? You can also get curious about your customers or clients. What are their needs? What are their challenges? What is their life like? You can also get curious about the external environment. Competition, possible collaborators. A lot of innovation happening now is through different organizations partnering together, each bringing their own expertise. The second way to stimulate innovation is to ask good questions and listen deeply. When I was learning how to be an executive coach, one of my teachers said, "To ask good questions, "you have to be willing to be dumb." I was one of those annoying people who had to be the smartest person in the room. Here's what's good about dumb questions. They're short. They don't make any assumptions. You don't already know the answer, and they make the other person think. Here's some examples of good questions to ask. In the exercise files, you will find even more good questions that you can use for different situations. What does success look like to you? What energizes you about this idea? What would be possible if we had the resources that we needed? Let's come back to our friend Anna, who is a team member on the Apollo Project. Their vision is to create the very best app for users, and to be part of a team that collaborates and has fun. She decided to ask these powerful questions. If we were to totally delight our customers, what would that look like? What are ways that we can build trust on our team? How could we make our team meetings productive and fun? She then listens actively. She finds something good, something that she can build on with each idea. The third way to stimulate innovation is to create a culture of curiosity with others. As a transformational leader, you have tremendous impact on the people you connect with. This is because your own openness to ideas makes it safe for others to come to you with their ideas. To create a culture of curiosity with others, you can plan regular time to brainstorm, spend time with your clients to learn about their habits and what's important to them. Learn as a team how to do active listening. Try an improv exercise to build on others' ideas called "yes, and..." Which of these ideas are you energized to experiment with? How will you move your big idea forward by getting the best thinking from others?