Last week I was in a workshop with a team and a few people you could tell probably didn’t want to be there. They were not rude about it. Just clearly sceptical, not convinced and possibly internally questioning the value.
If you’ve ever run workshops or even been a participant, you probably know what I mean. What I have learned over the years is that I don’t mind a sceptic. In fact, I quite like them, especially the curious sceptics.
They are often the ones paying the closest attention. They are thinking, testing, watching. It is often hard to read their face, they might be nodding along or sitting quietly but there is something going on.
There is usually a reason behind it as well.
Sometimes it’s past experience, a bad experience maybe that left an open wound or a workshop that felt like a tick-the-box exercise, many different models thrown at them that didn’t stick. Conversations that went nowhere after the session ended (my biggest frustration as a facilitator high Maximzer).
Sometimes it’s a belief that this kind of work is “fluffy” and takes time away from what feels like the real work.
Lately, I’ve noticed the word curiosity popping up everywhere. In conversations, in workshops, in coaching sessions, in my own learning experiences and even at home.
I am starting to wonder if it has always been there, and I am only just paying attention.
It is also why I care so much about how this work is done.
CliftonStrengths, when used well, is not about labels or reports. It is about helping people understand how they think, how they feel, how they operate, and how that impacts the people around them.
Every team I work with takes the CliftonStrengths assessment and self-awareness and awareness of others is something that stakeholders want to get from the session.
Awareness is really just the starting point. It can be an outcome, but it’s a shame if that is where it stays.
My work is focused on what happens next.
How do you take that awareness and actually use it to:
- communicate more clearly
- collaborate more effectively
- reduce friction
- get better results
That requires a shift.
The shift I saw in this recent workshop was not dramatic. It was subtle, it showed up in a number of moments and was far more powerful because of that.
This is something I see often across many a team.
In the middle of conversation, or even outside of the room and before the workshop even starts, someone may share a frustration about how a colleague approaches their work, usually said in a very normal, human way, sometimes not. We have all been there, I know I have.
As we explored the different CliftonStrengths themes in the room, something started to shift.
What had previously been seen as a frustration, or an annoyance began to be understood differently. The same behaviour, viewed through a different lens, started to make more sense.
What once looked like a weakness began to be recognised as a strength. Not because the other person changed, but because the perspective did.
There’s an Ethiopian proverb that says ‘Fish see water last’.
It’s all around them, yet they don’t notice it.
I often think that’s what is happening for us as human and in teams. The patterns, the differences, the frustrations, the strengths… they’ve been there all along. We just haven’t had the lens to see them clearly in a positive way.
That is curiosity.
Curiosity creates space between what we see and what we assume.
Without it, we label quickly. We decide what is right or wrong. We stay fixed in our view.
With it, we start asking: What might be driving that? What am I missing? How might this actually be useful?
My favourite part is that this is where strengths come to life.
It gives teams a language to describe what is happening, but curiosity is what allows them to use it. I am very aware in those moments of my own tendencies too.
With Woo and Communication high for me, there is always a temptation to win people over. To try and convince them and to bring them on the journey quickly but experience has taught me to wait.
Let the work speak for itself, let people find their own insights and let curiosity do its job.
By the end of the session, a few sceptics had not suddenly become cheerleaders. Something more important and powerful had happened.
They were open.
Open to seeing their colleagues differently, open to questioning their own assumptions and open to trying something new.
That is the shift.
It is also why this work cannot be done in a couple of hours and left there.
Real change happens when teams keep coming back to it. When strengths become part of everyday conversations. When curiosity is practised, not just talked about.
The people who start as sceptics often get the most from it. Not because they were convinced but because they became curious.
This idea of curiosity keeps showing up for me at the moment. In teams, in leadership, and even closer to home.
I have a feeling this is just the start of exploring it.
