imagination and curiosity are powerful problem solving tools

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Creative problem-solving skills: the value of curiosity and play.

How can curiosity help you surface the unexpected and get to breakthrough ideas and solutions?

In this episode of Breakthrough by Design , IDEO U Executive Director Coe Leta Stafford joins host Kim Christfort, Chief Innovation Leader and National Managing Director of The Deloitte Greenhouse® Experience, to discuss the concept of living with the problem. They explore the benefits of working through solutions layer by layer to understand individual, team, or customer behaviors, the importance of putting people at the center, and why you should have a curious mindset in your work.

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Explore Your Problem with Curiosity

Dive Deeper into the Problem with Systems Thinking

The Power of Play and Imagination in Problem Solving

Defining a Breakthrough: Balancing Business Realities and Future Possibilities

In her podcast and book The Breakthrough Manifesto , Kim Christfort outlines ten principles to spark transformative innovation. One of the principles is “ Live with the Problem ” which speaks to the benefits of taking time to explore the problem before taking action. When we face a new problem, we often feel a natural discomfort and rush to find a solution. Instead of going straight to solutions, Coe recommends approaching problems with curiosity to help us work through that initial discomfort. Curiosity doesn’t have to be academic like you’re an analytical detective. It can be more like an openness to be surprised and discover what you don't know exists or is possible. Coe believes that when approaching complex problems, this explorative mindset can feel like the French word “ flâner, ” which means to wander aimlessly through a city.

When leaning into a mindset of curiosity , Coe recommends starting broad. Much of the work she does is focused on customer behaviors or working with companies for a specific problem. For example, she might be working with a bank on how to help people better save money. When conducting interviews to better understand this problem, she wouldn’t start by asking how they spend their money. Instead, she might begin in the kitchen to learn about the food they care about and their family interactions. You can learn a lot about people, including what they value and how they think, by understanding their full context rather than just the narrow issue itself. That allows the people you work with to guide you with what they feel is important versus steering the agenda yourself.

“There's a particular type of curiosity that’s less academic and more like a curiosity to be surprised—an openness to discovering what you don't know exists or is possible.” Coe Leta Stafford—IDEO Partner & Executive Design Director, IDEO U

Kim emphasizes the set of tools or frameworks that can help you embrace curiosity and understand the problem holistically. Examining issues from a systems level can help you uncover the root cause of problems and see things from different and diverse perspectives. Systems thinking is an approach that involves understanding the individual elements and linkages within a system to create solutions that take into account the needs of all stakeholders.

An effective systems thinking tool that Coe suggests using is the iceberg model, attributed to the American anthropologist Edward Hall. While it's commonly practiced in organization and systems design, IDEO U’s course Human-Centered Systems Thinking teaches a version of the iceberg model that is useful for a range of problems and focuses on people.

To understand the iceberg model, think of an iceberg. When you imagine an iceberg, you see the tip above the surface, yet you know there is more below what we can see. To see the problem holistically, we need to break it into three different layers—the behaviors, the structures, and the mindsets.

• Behaviors: The actions and patterns of what we can see.
• Structures: The things that influence the behaviors we see.
• Mindsets: The values, beliefs, and mental models that shape the layers above.

This model encourages you to consider the whole picture, surface the root of the problem, and take appropriate action, leading you to more substantial solutions.

"Laughter is a precursor to learning. When you're engaged and laughing your senses are heightened, and this makes you lean in and want to learn more." Coe Leta Stafford—IDEO Partner & Executive Design Director, IDEO U

After you’ve used curiosity to understand the problem and brought in systems thinking to dive deeper into the surrounding context, how do you get to solving the problem? Coe says that play and imagination can be powerful tools for complex problem solving, one of the most important skills necessary for the future of work in our post-pandemic context according to research institute Burning Glass .

Coe believes that the complex problems we face today require different ways of thinking—unconventional thinking and creativity, which can be unlocked with play and imagination. When ambiguity is high, it's easy for us to default to our known and familiar ways of thinking and quick fixes. In times when we’re stressed and there's a real problem, Coe highlights how it feels counterintuitive to think about play or imagination. But incorporating it into your work can bring out new and innovative ideas.

Early in her career, Coe designed exhibits in science and tech museums. When Coe and her team were doing design research on how to engage people in these informal learning environments, they discovered that laughter is often a precursor to learning. When you're engaged and laughing, your senses are heightened and this makes you lean in and want to learn more. In the same way, play is a powerful way to get people into a space of laughter and joy. It helps us get expansive, look at things differently, explore multiple possibilities, and give us joy and momentum to keep going amid persistent challenges.

Check out our new course, Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving , to see how play helps us get to different places, get unstuck, and see new solutions.

What does it take to get to a breakthrough?

In The Breakthrough Manifesto , Kim notes that achieving a breakthrough requires that leaders think differently, share openly, and act boldly. Stepping outside the comfort of the status quo to ask, “What if?,” often enables new opportunities to blink into existence and eventually take flight.

From years of working with design teams, Coe suggests that there are distinct feelings that accompany a breakthrough. When she thinks about a breakthrough, it’s less about what it is and more about how it feels. Having been on many design teams as a leader at IDEO and looking across many possibilities, futures, ideas, and choices, she has learned that leadership is a skill of knowing when and how to shift from macro to micro, and being divergent or convergent.

As a business leader in those moments of many possibilities, Coe focuses on the realities and constraints of now and the creative possibilities of the future that do not yet exist. In her experience, the breakthrough feeling is distinct—it's a combination of brilliant and uncomfortable. When she feels that combo, it makes her lean forward and pay attention.

“A breakthrough is a feeling that sits in the space of brilliant and uncomfortable. As a leader, I need to be mindful of both of those two things—the business realities and the possible futures.” Coe Leta Stafford—IDEO Partner & Executive Design Director, IDEO U

About the Speakers

Kim Christfort Chief Innovation Leader and National Managing Director, Deloitte Greenhouse® Experience

Kim Christfort is the Chief Innovation Leader and National Managing Director of The Deloitte Greenhouse® Experience. She has dedicated her career to understanding and fostering the conditions necessary to spark innovation, spur alignment, and create lasting impact, helping executives and their teams mitigate or dissolve those barriers to progress through thoughtfully crafted experiences. She has co-authored two books with her Deloitte colleague Dr. Suzanne Vickberg, including The Breakthrough Manifesto: 10 Principles to Spark Transformative Innovation , released in November 2023. Previously they released Business Chemistry: Practical Magic for Crafting Powerful Work Relationships .

Kim is also the architect and Global Leader of Business Chemistry®, Deloitte’s proprietary working style system used by more than 600,000 people around the world. She is a frequent speaker and coach for global businesses, providing insights, crafting methods that unlock opportunities, and facilitating immersive, interactive sessions that accelerate breakthroughs.

Coe Leta Stafford IDEO Partner & Executive Design Director, IDEO U

Coe Leta teaches global audiences the skills of design thinking, human-centered research, rapid prototyping, and storytelling. Since joining IDEO in 2006, she's led numerous creative teams across diverse organizations including Microsoft, Target, Intel, Wells Fargo, Ford, eBay, Hasbro, Sesame Street, and Government and Healthcare groups. Known for expertise in digital design, play, and data, her work has won international awards, patents for clients, and been featured in the New York Times and Wired. Coe Leta has a Ph.D. in Education from UC Berkeley and guest lectures at Stanford University's d.School. Coe Leta is an instructor in IDEO U’s Insights for Innovation course.

Learn more about tapping into our creative identities and find new approaches to problems with our new course Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving .

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Creativity—What's Curiosity Got to Do With It?

Exploring the curiosity/creativity connection..

Posted July 5, 2017 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

We all have likely seen them at one time or another: the job advertisements calling for curiosity as part of the desired "package of qualities" of the successful applicant. The ways in which curiosity is described might differ. But the message is much the same: What is needed is (choose the one that most resonates with your past encounters) — a passion for learning, a thirst for knowledge, an inquiring mind, a hands-on curiosity — paired with innovative and creative thinking , and an ability to think "outside the box."

The connection between curiosity and creativity seems so clear and obvious, that we scarcely notice that these two different qualities have been linked together. But what is the empirical evidence for their association? How closely connected are they, really? And, if they are associated, what is the direction of their connection: Does curiosity fuel creativity? Or does having a creative cast of mind catalyze curiosity?

Despite our intuitive sense that there should be a strong association between curiosity and creativity, only recently has the nature of the connection between them begun to be systematically probed.

Let's walk through one such study, published in 2017 by a team of three U.S. researchers. We'll start by taking a closer look at the broader research questions that the study was designed to address and the research approach the team used to try to answer those questions.

Two types of curiosity

The study was designed to test the link between curiosity and creative problem-solving but also more particularly focused on how creativity was impacted by two types of curiosity.

One type of curiosity is general curiosity . Sometimes referred to as "diversive" curiosity, this form of curiosity is associated with quite broad interests in seeking out many different kinds and varieties of novel information. It can be seen as emphasizing breadth rather than depth of exploration. General curiosity leads us to enjoy learning about new and unfamiliar topics or abstract concepts.

A second type of curiosity is specific curiosity . It is associated with efforts to learn or acquire particular sorts of information, especially facts that might fill a "gap" in one's knowledge about a particular problem. This form of curiosity is associated with a more focused form of cognitive search. Specific curiosity is what might prompt us to stick with trying to solve a particular perplexing riddle, or to figure out precisely how a complicated piece of machinery works.

The researchers wanted to know if creative problem solving was more strongly impacted by general curiosity or by specific curiosity. The study was also designed to examine the question of when , in the creative process, did the effects of curiosity emerge. When was the influence of these two types of curiosity the strongest: During initial information seeking or problem scoping, or during actual idea generation?

A creative problem-solving challenge

To examine these questions, the researchers asked 122 undergraduates to complete a computerized creative problem-solving task. The task began with the participants receiving an email — allegedly from their supervisor at a company they had recently joined — describing the company and detailing their new role as the head of advertising for the company. Participants learned that they were to develop a marketing strategy to increase sales of the company's product at various company locations, but that they should especially focus on increasing product sales rates among young adults (17 to 29 years old). They were then given as much time as they wanted to review a large set of background materials about the problem.

Next, when the participant indicated they had finished reviewing the background information, they were asked to generate a list of ideas for the marketing plan. After first providing a rough draft of their ideas, they were asked to write a more detailed plan to be formally presented to the company leaders. As they worked on the plan they could again ask to consult any of the background materials.

The total amount of time that participants took to review the background materials provided a measure of their information seeking .

The idea listing task­­ — including the number of ideas and different types of ideas that were generated, as scored by three independent raters — provided a measure of their idea generation .

Finally, the detailed marketing plan of each participant provided a measure of their creative problem-solving prowess . The marketing plans were scored by three doctoral students in industrial or organizational psychology to assess the quality of the proposed plan and the plan's originality.

So, what was the curiosity-creativity connection?

General curiosity led to more information seeking which, in turn, directly led to higher creativity. But general curiosity also took a less direct path. The new information gathered through information seeking sparked deeper idea generation, indirectly boosting creativity. Specific curiosity had only a weak effect on idea generation, though it did eventually also promote creative problem-solving.

Here's a picture of what they found.

Intriguingly, general curiosity –– but again not specific curiosity –– also continued to have an impact on the quality and originality of the creative performance outcomes, even after accounting for personality factors that we know influence creative performance, such as openness to experience . In other words, general curiosity was a significant "incremental" predictor in that it explained differences in creative problem-solving performance over and above that explained by these other factors.

Curiosity in practice

Although these results are for only one study that used a laboratory-based paradigm, the findings highlight some practical lessons for us.

One "take away" message is the importance of taking time to fully scope out or explore a creative problem that we are facing. Information seeking matters. We need to give ourselves the time and space to gain a good understanding of the surrounding context in which our problem is embedded.

A related "take away" message may be that we shouldn't try to be too narrowly prescriptive in where we turn our attention during our initial attempts at generating ideas. Although it may feel as though we will make better progress by carefully confining our attention to the precise nature of the problem at hand, this may prove to be counterproductive. By focusing narrowly, we may then miss out on finding and developing less obvious options that, in the longer-term, lead us to more original, higher quality solutions.

Three questions for your creative process

• What sorts––or sources­­––of information should you more fully explore before launching into the idea generation phase of your creative endeavors? Are you allowing your curiosity enough curiosity?
• Are you "boxing in" your curiosity too much, or too soon? Or to use a different metaphor: Are you giving the reins of your curiosity the "creative slack" it needs?
• Look again at the photograph at the top of this post. Think of the dog's quizzical look, his head-tilted attention toward something outside the photograph. He is not so absorbed in his bath that he isn't also curious about something more. What's the "something more" that you should be attentively exploring?

Wilma Koutstaal, Ph.D. , is a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota who studies thinking, memory and mental agility.

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Thought Experiments: A Powerful Tool for Problem Solving

• Introduction

As a means of problem-solving , thought experiments have gained recognition as a powerful tool. By engaging our imagination and intellectual faculties, these mental exercises enable us to explore hypothetical scenarios, challenge conventional thinking, and gain fresh perspectives. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the various dimensions of thought experiments, their purpose, who can benefit from using them, when and where to apply them, and how to utilize them effectively in problem-solving endeavors.

What is a Thought Experiment?

Why use thought experiments, who can benefit from thought experiments, when and where to use thought experiments, how to use thought experiments effectively.

A thought experiment is a mental exercise that poses hypothetical scenarios and encourages individuals to contemplate their implications. It involves creating an imagined situation that reflects a particular problem or challenge, allowing us to explore possible outcomes and uncover insights that may not be immediately apparent in real-life situations. While thought experiments do not involve physical experimentation, they can simulate and analyze complex scenarios.

Let’s consider a thought experiment designed to explore the concept of moral dilemmas:

Imagine you are a doctor during a war, and your medical tent is crowded with injured soldiers. You have limited resources and must make a decision: treat the soldiers with minor injuries or focus on the gravely wounded soldiers with a higher chance of survival. What do you do?

This thought experiment, known as the “Triage Dilemma,” prompts individuals to grapple with ethical choices and consider the allocation of scarce resources. It highlights the difficult decisions faced by healthcare professionals during wartime and encourages reflection on the principles guiding such decisions.

Thought experiments offer a range of benefits that make them invaluable tools in problem solving:

1. Expanding Imagination and Creativity: By creating imaginary scenarios, thought experiments unlock the potential of our imagination and encourage innovative thinking. They enable us to consider possibilities beyond the constraints of reality, leading to fresh perspectives and novel solutions.

2. Challenging Assumptions and Conventional Wisdom: Thought experiments help challenge established assumptions and break free from conventional ways of thinking. By questioning what is taken for granted, they open doors to new ideas and alternative approaches to problem solving.

3. Exploring Complex Issues and Concepts: Thought experiments provide a safe space to explore complex issues and concepts without real-life consequences. They allow us to investigate intricate problems from various angles, teasing out underlying factors and relationships that may not be immediately apparent.

4. Promoting Critical Thinking and Analysis: Engaging in thought experiments sharpens critical thinking skills and enhances analytical abilities. By dissecting intricate hypothetical scenarios, we develop a habit of examining problems deeply, considering multiple variables, and evaluating potential outcomes.

Suppose you are a software developer faced with the challenge of optimizing a webpage to increase user engagement. By using a thought experiment, you could explore potential solutions:

Imagine you are a user visiting the webpage. What would make you stay longer and engage more with the content? What elements or features would enhance your experience?

Through this thought experiment, you can generate innovative ideas to improve the webpage, taking into account user experience and engagement. It pushes you to think beyond the technical aspects and consider the human perspective.

Thought experiments can benefit individuals from a wide range of professions and fields. Whether you are an engineer, a scientist, an artist, a philosopher, or simply someone looking to expand their problem-solving abilities, thought experiments offer a valuable toolset for intellectual growth and creative problem solving.

• Scientists and Researchers: Thought experiments are a crucial part of scientific exploration. Scientists often employ these mental exercises to explore the implications of new theories, question established paradigms, and develop new hypotheses.
• Entrepreneurs and Innovators: Thought experiments can help entrepreneurs and innovators explore uncharted territories, test potential business models, and consider the consequences of various decisions. They enable better risk assessment and informed decision-making.
• Ethicists and Philosophers: Thought experiments frequently find their home in ethical and philosophical discourse. From exploring moral dilemmas to questioning metaphysical concepts, thought experiments help thinkers delve into abstract ideas and critically analyze ethical frameworks.

Thought experiments can be employed in various situations to effectively dissect and solve problems. Here are a few scenarios where thought experiments can be immensely valuable:

1. In Academia: Thought experiments are a staple in academic settings, particularly in fields such as physics, philosophy, and social sciences. They foster intellectual curiosity, facilitate theoretical exploration, and aid in constructing robust arguments.

2. In Innovation and Design Processes: Thought experiments can be employed during the ideation and design stages of product development. By exploring diverse hypothetical scenarios, design teams can identify potential pitfalls, refine ideas, and create user-centric solutions.

3. In Personal and Professional Growth: Engaging in thought experiments as part of self-reflection or personal development exercises can help individuals expand their perspectives, challenge cognitive biases, and cultivate critical thinking skills.

Imagine you are a marketing strategist tasked with developing a campaign for a new product launch. Applying a thought experiment could guide you towards a successful strategy:

Envision a scenario where the target audience has never heard of the product. How would you create awareness, generate interest, and convince them to try it?

By imagining such a scenario, you can generate creative ideas for an effective marketing campaign that addresses the challenge of introducing a new product to a receptive audience.

To harness the full potential of thought experiments in problem solving, consider the following guidelines:

1. Define the Problem: Clearly articulate the problem or challenge you wish to address. This will provide focus and structure to your thought experiment.

2. Imagine Scenarios: Create hypothetical scenarios related to the problem at hand. These scenarios should embody the essence of the problem and offer space for exploration.

3. Engage in Introspection: Dive deep into your thoughts and engage in reflective introspection. Question assumptions, probe complexities, and challenge preconceived notions.

4. Explore Multiple Perspectives: Consider various viewpoints and explore the problem from different angles. This can reveal new insights and unveil aspects that may have been overlooked.

5. Seek Real-World Applications: Translate the insights gained from thought experiments into actionable steps. These steps should address the problem effectively and create tangible outcomes.

Thought experiments provide a unique and powerful approach to problem solving. By incorporating these mental exercises into your problem-solving toolkit, you can unlock new possibilities, challenge conventional thinking, and arrive at innovative solutions. Whether you are a scientist, an entrepreneur, or someone seeking personal growth and development, thought experiments hold immense potential for expanding your intellectual horizons and conquering complex challenges.

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Why Cultivating Curiosity & Imagination Benefits Your Business

Curiosity and imagination are crucial skills for individuals and organizations, particularly in today’s fast-paced and complex business environment. In this article, I explore the importance of these skills and techniques for cultivating them in organizations.  

The power of curiosity and imagination  

Curiosity is the driving force behind imagination as well as innovation and invention. It fuels our desire to learn, explore, and discover new things, see the same in a different way, and even challenge the status quo. Imagination is the ability to envision new possibilities, explore different perspectives, and dream up new ideas. Without curiosity and imagination, we become complacent, resistant to change, and closed-minded.  

Imagination is particularly important in today’s fast-paced and complex business environment, where organizations are facing an increasing number of challenges and uncertainties. To remain competitive and relevant, organizations must be able to adapt and innovate quickly. Cultivating curiosity and imagination can lead to numerous benefits for individuals and organizations, such as identifying new opportunities, anticipating challenges, and developing innovative solutions to existing and emerging problems.  

To remain competitive and relevant, organizations must be able to adapt and innovate quickly.

Imagining is not fantasizing    

It’s important to distinguish between imagination and fantasy, which are often used interchangeably. Imagination refers to the ability to envision new possibilities, explore different perspectives, and dream up new ideas – grounded in reality – and often used to solve real-world problems. Fantasy, on the other hand, refers to the creation of unreal or imaginary worlds, often involving magic or supernatural elements. While fantasy can provide an escape from reality and inspire creativity, it is not practical for solving real-world problems. Therefore, it’s important to cultivate imagination rather than simply indulge in fantasy, at least in organizations.  

Techniques for cultivating curiosity and imagination  

There are many techniques for cultivating curiosity and creative thinking, including brainstorming sessions, design thinking, improvisation, and visual thinking.  

• Brainstorming is a technique that involves generating many ideas in a short amount of time.  
• Design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving that involves empathy, experimentation, and iteration.  
• Improvisation is a technique that involves spontaneous and unscripted performance, often used in theater and comedy.  
• Visual thinking involves expressing ideas and concepts through visual imagery, such as diagrams, maps, and infographics.  

Other techniques encourage playfulness, flexibility, experimentation, risk-taking, and unconventional thinking. They can help individuals and teams break free from established patterns of thinking and generate new and innovative ideas.  

The method has been used by NASA, Google, and Unilever to stimulate innovation and creativity.  

LEGO® Serious Play® method

A technique that I am very familiar with is the LEGO® Serious Play® method , which I helped developed in the late 1990s in collaboration with LEGO® . This method uses facilitated and guided play to cultivate:  

• Stimulating imagination  
• Story generation and telling  
• Improvisation  
• Intuition  

It has been used by thousands of educators and consultants worldwide to help individuals and organizations develop creative thinking skills.  

  The LEGO® Serious Play® method involves building three-dimensional models using LEGO bricks to represent abstract concepts and ideas. The method is designed to encourage participants to think in new ways and “with their hands” and express themselves visually and by narratives. It is a highly engaging and interactive method that can be used to explore a wide range of topics, from strategy development to team building to help individuals express themselves. The method has been used by many private and public organizations all over the world, for example, NASA, Google, and Unilever to stimulate innovation and creativity.  

Create an open and safe environment  

Creating an open and safe environment is crucial for cultivating curiosity and imagination in organizations. When individuals feel free to explore, experiment, and even play with their ideas, they are more likely to develop innovative perspectives and solutions to challenges. An environment that promotes curiosity and imagination must encourage open communication, collaboration, and risk-taking. It should also foster a culture of psychological safety, where individuals feel comfortable expressing their ideas and taking risks without fear of ridicule or negative consequences.  

Variation fuels imagination  

Diversity and inclusion are critical to the success of organizations in a fast-paced and complex business environment. By embracing a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and views, organizations can leverage the power of curiosity and imagination to generate new and innovative ideas, leading to a more dynamic and innovative work environment. When organizations value diversity of people and experiences, they foster a variety of perspectives and ideas, enhancing creativity and problem-solving. This leads to improved adaptability and innovation, allowing organizations to remain competitive and relevant in the face of uncertainty and change. In short, a culture of diversity enables organizations to thrive and succeed in today’s business landscape.  

Experimentation and playfulness  

Experimentation and playfulness are two critical elements of cultivating curiosity and imagination. Experimentation involves trying new things, exploring new ideas, and taking risks. It requires a willingness to fail and learn from those failures. Playfulness involves a sense of lightness, spontaneity, and humor. It encourages individuals to approach their work with a sense of joy and enthusiasm, rather than pressure and stress. When individuals feel free to experiment and play, they are more likely to generate new and original ideas. They are also more likely to collaborate and build on each other’s ideas. This can lead to a more dynamic and innovative work environment.  

Benefits for people and organizations  

  Cultivating curiosity and innovation can lead to numerous benefits for individuals and organizations. For example, it can foster a culture of innovation, improve problem-solving skills, increase employee engagement and motivation, and enhance productivity and efficiency. When individuals feel free to explore and experiment with their ideas, even with their hands, they are more likely to develop innovative solutions to challenges. Curious employees are also more engaged in their work, more invested in the company’s success, and more likely to take risks and challenge established norms.  

Organizations that foster a culture of cultivating curiosity and imagination can also attract and retain top talent. In today’s job market, employees are looking for more than just a paycheck. They want to work for organizations that value their input and encourage them to grow and develop their skills. Leaders that place curiosity and imagination on the agenda are, in my experience, more likely to attract employees who share these values.  

Developing these skills can also lead to personal growth, fulfillment, and a deeper understanding of the world around us. Curious individuals are more likely to seek out new experiences, learn new things, and develop a broader perspective on life. Imaginative individuals are more likely to express themselves, solve problems, and find meaning in their work and life. This can lead to a more dynamic and innovative work environment that is better equipped to address the challenges of today’s fast-paced business landscape.  

Let’s experiment, play seriously, and perhaps even think outside the famous box.    

Embrace new and innovative possibilities

Cultivating curiosity and imagination is essential for personal and organizational growth and success. Educators, consultants, learning officers, human resources managers, and leaders have a responsibility to encourage and develop these skills in ourselves and those around us. There are numerous techniques and methods available, such as the LEGO® Serious Play® method, brainstorming, and design thinking. The key is to experiment and find the techniques that work best for our organizations and individuals. By doing so, we can create a culture of innovation and resilience that can lead to a brighter future for all of us.  

So, let’s embrace curiosity and imagination, and let them guide us toward new and innovative possibilities and more resilience. Let’s experiment, play seriously, and perhaps even think outside the famous box. Let’s cultivate curiosity and imagination in ourselves and our organizations.  

Catch Johan on The Curious Advantage podcast

The Curious Advantage Podcast series is brought to you by the authors of the book The Curious Advantage , Paul Ashcroft, Simon Brown & Garrick Jones and it is about how individuals and organizations use the power of curiosity to drive success in their lives and organizations, especially in the context of our new digital reality. It brings to life the latest understanding from neuroscience, anthropology, history, and behaviorism about curiosity and makes these useful for everyone.

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