“Organizations advertise they want curious employees, they want people to be curious in the workplace. But I always wondered — there has to be a limit of how much curiosity is too much.” ~ Phil Thompson

Business and popular magazines are riddled with assurances that the best leaders are curious. That where curiosity goes, success will follow. 

I blithely encourage people to “choose to be curious.”

But the truth is: it isn’t that simple.

There is some skill involved. And, not surprisingly, more than a few social constructs.

So, today we’re digging into the social side of curiosity at work with Phil Thompson, PhD. Phil is a professor in the Department of Management at the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. He’s trying to understand how micro-organizational behaviors such as organizational citizenship behavior, impression management, organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and curiosity influence employees’ job performance.

He wants to know: what happens when those dynamics intersect with gender differences?

I take the position that when people are being curious, they’re doing it from a well-intentioned place. And where it goes wrong is in how people interpret it…we can sometimes put that blame on the communicator, but I put most of the blame on the interpreter and how they [mis]interpret people’s well-intentioned curiosity.

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #223: The Social Side of Curiosity at Work, with Phil Thompson, PhD

Check out Phil Thompson’s work: https://www.philthompsonphd.com

Phil mentioned the great work being done by Evan Polman: https://business.wisc.edu/directory/profile/evan-polman/

And we both mentioned Todd Kashdan: https://toddkashdan.com. I’ve interviewed Todd twice: Capturing the Bandwidth of Curiosity and The Art of Insubordination.

Check out The PhD Project, which supports the creation of business PhDs from historically underrepresented groups – transforming both business education and business.

If you’re interested in conversations about curiosity in the workplace, try these C2BC classics: Curiosity as a Business Tool, with Tara Palacios; Diagnosing Curiosity, with Stefaan Van Hooydonk; Curiosity in the Workplace, with Alison Horstmeyer.

Theme and other music by Sean Balick.

You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and  Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Wear your curiosity on your sleeve. Check out the Choose to be Curious shop.