Are you curious?

Or to rephrase, are you interested, inquisitive and questioning? Asking many questions, challenging established truths, finding alternative solutions, makes us smarter and better researchers. In Harvard Business Review you can read about the “Surprising Power of Questions” (https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-surprising-power-of-questions)

The authors summarize that asking questions is a unique tool for learning and exchanging ideas. It makes conversations more productive, gives innovation better results and it builds trust in the organization. It can also uncover unforeseen dangers and pitfalls. Despite this, many of us probably do not think that asking questions is an art that can be developed and improved. By asking questions you improve your emotional intelligence, which in turn makes us better questioners. The article gives tips on how different questions should be used – “not all questions are created equal”.

As researchers and teachers, we can also become better at asking questions, we can learn more and I believe our research will be better – what is the question you want answered when you do an experiment, and what is your lab neighbour doing?

I hope you will be inspired to become more questioning and curious.

Have a good weekend

Eystein Husebye

Vice head, K2