Lack of curiosity: The silent killer of agility
Summary
Why is curiosity so important in our agile life? We start out our lives curious about everything, but after years of standardized learning and "best" practices, we tend to lose the ability to question things. When working with people, we want them to question the suggestions we make, but too often they just want us to give them a tick-box exercise that they can blindly follow. To continue to learn and evolve, we need to be curious about everything. In this session, we'll explore what it means to be curious, how we ended up with a lack of curiosity, how to spot a lack of curiosity in your workplace, and how to bring back something we never should have let go of in the first place.
Outline
Intro - Introduce who I am and why I’m doing this talk.
What? – What is curiosity and why is it so important
Activity 1 - First Powerful Question "Do you see a lack of curiosity in your workplace?" The audience will discuss at their table what they've observed.
So What? - What are the consequences of a workplace that lacks curiosity? How does a lack of curiosity lead to agile transformation failure?
Now What? - What needs to happen to spark curiosity?
Activity 2 - Second Powerful Question "Can you think of ways to spark curiosity in your workplace?" The audience will discuss at their table what think might bring back curiosity
Share back - The participants will be asked to share with the group what they think about the questions they discussed in the activities
Conclusion - Wrap up.
Remainder of timebox - Q&A
Final powerful question – What will you do next week to inspire curiosity in yourself?
Learning Outcomes
Participants will:
- Understand why curiosity is so important
- Lead others to cultivate curiosity
- Recognize a lack of curiosity in your workplace
- Experiment with new ways to encourage creativity
- Reflect on whether they embrace curiosity
- Articulate why curiosity is important
Presentation History
Melbourne Agile and Scrum meetup - 2024
ScanAgile 2024 - Keynote
RSG Tokyo 2024
Agile Prague 2023