This is the second in a series of posts about S&C’s values, and the first in which we explore each of them individually and what they mean to us and our work. 

Each spring and fall, our entire team meets up for S&C’s retreat week. At the most recent one, we decided to talk about our values and what they really mean to us. As we went through each of them, it became clear that curiosity is our anchor value. Without it, the others don’t mean anything. 

We’ve come to understand that a culture of curiosity is actually how we can create excellence and it makes being direct a whole lot easier.

We can't be direct if we’re not curious about what's really going on beneath the surface. Directness without curiosity is just bluntness — saying hard things without caring whether or how they land. But when we’re genuinely curious about what someone is experiencing, directness becomes an act of care. We can get to the heart of the problem because we actually want to understand it.

Curiosity requires safety. It requires the absence of judgment and the willingness to create space for people. When we hold space and get curious, everything else becomes possible.

When we’re genuinely curious about what someone is experiencing, directness becomes an act of care. We can get to the heart of the problem because we actually want to understand it.

What Curiosity Means to Us

Curiosity is staying open. It means being OK with not knowing (and then courage lets you speak up and admit it). It allows you to ask foundational, simple, childlike questions, which is the only way we ever get to a shared understanding of something’s importance.

When we are curious, we are able to practice empathy. We are in the business of trying to find ways to connect with other human beings. We want to understand people’s lived experience because that’s the only way to be effective communicators, to meet people where they are coming from. We ask those childlike questions, it disarms people, and we get the real answers that matter. 

Curiosity is at the heart of a technique like the Five Whys, which means that you don’t accept the first response — you keep asking to go deeper and deeper. This is the opposite of ego and judgment. 

It’s also the precondition for creativity. When you’re curious, you keep exploring because you want to find out what will happen if you try this or try that. That’s how you make discoveries, make connections between disparate ideas, and get to something that feels fresh and accurate. 

Curiosity in Practice

In our work, curiosity shows up throughout the entire process. At the beginning of the project, it’s fairly obvious, because we’re asking questions. We encourage this approach from the moment we start working — how do you like to work? How can we work together most effectively? 

In discovery, every client is a new world we’re exploring. We might be working in a new industry or with a new type of organization, but even if it’s familiar territory, we come to it with a beginner’s mind. This is intentional. We’re on guard against being jaded or operating like we know everything.  

Throughout design, we’re exploring metaphors and ideas. Websites give us a playground to be curious about the world. We don’t specialize in a particular industry, per se, because one of the best parts of our jobs is delving deep into what people do. Our clients are subject matter experts in their sector or industry. We just need to be curious enough to bring their brilliance out.

In our own business, among our team, curiosity means being open to honest feedback, breaking down defensiveness and leaning into what’s actually going on with people. We must practice this mindset intentionally. We’re all busy and at times, stressed, but we can’t let that get in the way. This mindset is one of the most important to inhabit as leaders.

What Curiosity Asks of Us

Curiosity is at the opposite end of the urgency spectrum. In our society, it is not easy or encouraged to slow down and ask fundamental questions. That intention to slow down is the precondition of a psychologically safe environment. People are not truly creative when they’re feeling bad about themselves or their peers, or when they’re feeling urgency to solve something quickly but perhaps don’t have the information they need. This rushing is often the ingredient that causes the most churn and conflict within organizations and teams. And it’s wholly preventable.

It’s important that we remember to pause for a moment, get curious with our own assumptions, and move into an open mindstate. To trust a slower, more intentional process can feel counterintuitive in many work environments, but in our experience, it’s hugely beneficial to culture and the bottom line. Again, this is not easy. There’s a real tension between the lack of urgency curiosity requires and client work. So we have to find a balance and be honest about that tension. 

To trust a slower, more intentional process can feel counterintuitive in many work environments, but in our experience, it’s hugely beneficial to culture and the bottom line.

We also need curiosity when we’re faced with the pressure to chase perfection. Perfectionism is curiosity’s enemy. It looks like you know what you’re doing when you try to control everything, but in reality you are leading with fear. And when the cracks appear, as they assuredly will, conflict and tensions are revealed. But the willingness to be OK with the messy middle, to let something be imperfect so that we can keep moving forward and learn together, is essential to true creativity.

When we start with curiosity, everything else we value follows. It’s the anchor that makes our courage possible—courage to be direct, to be fully human, and to seek excellence without losing our humanity. Curiosity gives us permission to be open, to slow down, and to care.