Curiosity and Critical Thinking

Having had many coffee chats recently, I’ve realized: Genuine curiosity drives the best conversations. And the way to show curiosity is by asking great questions. I believe asking great questions is the most important skill in any conversation—far more valuable than saying something clever/impressive. In fact, asking great questions is impressive in itself as it involves multiple skills: - Intellectual insight (grasping + building on context) - Emotional understanding (active listening + empathy) - Strong communication (verbal + non-verbal) So, how to ask great questions? We often ask about facts, processes, and surface-level opinions. But the goal should be to go one level deeper. What works for me is asking open-ended questions in these big five: 1. Motivation — "What inspired you to do X?" 2. Decision-making — "How/Why did you decide X?" 3. Emotions — "Are you happy with X?" 4. Challenges — "What was hardest doing X?" 5. Vision — "Where do you see this going?" It’s simple, but it must come from genuine curiosity. You really have to want to know. Be fascinated by people’s lives and stories. Combine this with deep listening, thoughtful contributions and a touch of humor - You'll connect more with almost anyone. And you'll be more memorable to them.

When you’re leading through change, curiosity beats certainty. Adam Grant, one of my favorite thinkers on leadership, puts it well: “Think like a scientist.” That mindset is simple: Start with a hypothesis. Run experiments. Learn from the results. Here’s the liberating part: even if your hypothesis is wrong, you’re not. You’ve just learned something. And the moment you realize you’re wrong, you’re already less wrong than before. That’s how progress actually happens. I find this mindset incredibly freeing. It takes the fear out of uncertainty and replaces it with curiosity. It also helps me get better as a leader. I learn faster, iterate more often, and get to what works sooner. We lean hard into this at HubSpot. Take our approach to AI adoption. We gave every HubSpotter access to AI tools, formed tiger teams, and encouraged people to experiment. That helped us move quickly and separate what truly creates customer value from what doesn’t. As you navigate this year, try letting go of certainty and leaning into curiosity. When you do, change feels less like something to survive and more like something to explore.

As a leader, you're always looking for ways to improve. But stepping into a legacy business teaches you a powerful truth: your first responsibility isn’t to change, it is to understand.   The instinct to offer solutions is strong. But over a period, I’ve learned that listening is often the most valuable action you can take. Listening to people’s stories, the pride they carry in their work, the relationships built over decades, and the legacy behind iconic brands that are now part of India's cultural fabric.   At DIAGEO India, every conversation teaches me something new about craftsmanship, business nuance, consumer insight, and often, about leadership itself. Trust isn’t built through declarations, it’s built through curiosity, consistency, and respect. When you honour what came before, people begin to trust you with what comes next.   If there’s one lesson, I carry from three decades of working across different industries, it’s this: curiosity is your best asset. Strategies evolve, models change but the discipline of listening and asking appropriate questions, to let teams explore their thoughts into solutions and the willingness to learn will always be timeless.   I'm still listening, still asking questions, still learning. And deeply grateful for every conversation that brings fresh insight. Because the best leaders don’t just guide change, they earn the right to shape it.   #Leadership

I know a few people who are not curious -- or at least, they never demonstrate that they're curious about ME. They talk about themselves and their interests, but don't ask me anything about my life. They're not demonstrating helpful curiosity. I also know a few people who ask a million questions that are overly personal, or too pushy, or too prying. What makes this worse is when they don't remember what I've shared nor do they remember when I've told them what I am not comfortable sharing. That's not demonstrating helpful curiosity either. We tend to think of curiosity as just asking questions, but it's way more that that. 1. Helpful curiosity is intentional. It's asking questions that serve the other person, not just feeding your own need for information or filling awkward silence. 2. Helpful curiosity is reciprocal. It creates space for genuine exchange rather than one-sided interrogation or monologue. 3. Helpful curiosity remembers. When someone shares something meaningful, you build on it in future conversations instead of asking the same questions repeatedly. 4. Helpful curiosity respects boundaries. It notices when someone deflects or changes the subject, or even directly says not to go there, and it honors those signals without pushing. 5. Helpful curiosity follows up. "How did that presentation go?" "Did you end up taking that trip?" These small acts show you were actually listening. The people I feel most connected to aren't necessarily the ones who ask the most questions. They're the ones who ask the right questions at the right time, remember my answers, and create space for me to be curious about them too. Curiosity isn't just about gathering information; it's about creating connection. And that requires as much emotional intelligence as intellectual interest. #curiosity #emotionalintelligence #leadership

Assumptions feel fast. But they’re also where trust breaks — and where judgment slips Most professionals don’t stagnate because they lack skill. They stagnate because they believed they already knew. You’ve seen the pattern. You’ve done this before. You trust your gut... So you stop asking questions. That’s when mistakes happen. And that’s when trust quietly erodes. If you want to be right a lot — and earn trust — lead with a question. A single question can prevent: • Delivering the wrong thing • Misunderstanding what someone actually meant • Missing a risk that was obvious to others • Overlooking a dependency that derails everything Early in your career, you’re rewarded for answers. Later in your career, you’re rewarded for clarity — and clarity comes from questions. → “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘐 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨?” → “𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦.” → “𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘮𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳.” Better questions → better inputs → better decisions → more trust. A statement closes the conversation. A question opens it. If you want to be trusted, ask better questions. If you want to be right a lot, ask more questions — especially when you think you already know. 𝗣𝗦: Curiosity isn’t slowness. It’s strategy. What's your go-to question to avoid making assumptions? --- Follow me, tap the (🔔) Omar Halabieh for Leadership and Career posts

"The findings revealed a significant negative correlation between frequent AI tool usage and critical thinking abilities, mediated by increased cognitive offloading. Younger participants exhibited higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical thinking scores compared to older participants. Furthermore, higher educational attainment was associated with better critical thinking skills, regardless of AI usage. These results highlight the potential cognitive costs of AI tool reliance, emphasising the need for educational strategies that promote critical engagement with AI technologies. This study contributes to the growing discourse on AI’s cognitive implications, offering practical recommendations for mitigating its adverse effects on critical thinking. The findings underscore the importance of fostering critical thinking in an AI-driven world, making this research essential reading for educators, policymakers, and technologists"

My team has stopped asking questions. They now wait for instructions. A leader shared this observation at last Thursday’s Melbourne Business School - Retail & Consumer Goods panel. It perfectly captured the curiosity crisis facing our industry in an uncertain operating environment. In a brilliant conversation with Adam Murphy 🌻 , moderated by Lenny Chudri, GAICD, we explored how to reignite innovation when uncertainty is our new normal. Here is what resonated most: 1. The 5-Question Rule That Changed Everything At a global FMCG giant, we were stuck. Innovation had become theatre, all talk, no breakthrough. So we tried something radical: “Curiosity Time”. Rule: For one hour every Friday, you could ONLY ask questions. No answers. No solutions. Just questions. The first session was painful. By week six? We had identified three breakthrough opportunities worth $5M. 🎯Try this tomorrow: Start your next meeting with 5 minutes of questions only. No answers allowed. 2. When Budget Cuts Forced Our Best Innovation Leading innovation at a major CPG company, I faced a 30% budget cut. Instead of scaling back, we asked: “What would we do if we had 10% of the budget?” That constraint forced us to partner with suppliers in ways we never imagined. We reduced a 12-18month innovation cycles to 3 months. The result? Our most successful launches that decade. Key insight: Every constraint hides an opportunity. 🎯 List your top 3 constraints right now. Pick one. Ask “How might this force us to be brilliant?” 3. The $8M Mistake That Taught Me Everything Years ago, I led a “perfect” innovation project. Great consumer research. Flawless execution. It failed spectacularly. Why? We had curiosity at the top but killed it everywhere else. Only 24% of employees feel curious at work, yet curiosity increases creativity by 34%. That gap is your innovation problem. At my next role: We measured “learning velocity” alongside EBIT. We celebrated fast failures publicly. We made questioning as important as delivering. 🎯 Your move: Ask your teams: “What are we pretending not to know?” Then actually listen. After commercialising 1,200+ innovations globally, from establishing industry-first research hubs, I know this: Curiosity is not a nice to have. It is your sustainable competitive advantage. Sharing this handy question. ❓If your biggest competitor had your constraints but twice your curiosity, what would they do differently? Some 📸 from an inspiring evening of #learning and #unlearning. Lenny Chudri, GAICD Adam Murphy 🌻 Innovation Gamechangers University of Melbourne Melbourne Business School #curiosity #innovation

When you ask questions, are you doing so out of curiosity, to challenge, or to criticize? The intention behind our questions shapes the tone of our conversations—and how safe others feel to respond. Curiosity opens doors. It invites dialogue and connection. It says, “I want to understand.” But when a question is really a disguise for judgment or a trap to prove someone wrong, people feel it—and they shut down. There’s a big difference between “Help me understand your perspective” and “Why would you even think that?” One builds bridges. The other burns them. I had a manager once whose favorite questions almost always started with, “Why wouldn’t you…” It was instruction masquerading as a question. Before you ask someone a hard question, pause and check in with yourself. Are you genuinely open to hearing their answer? Or are you trying to make a point? Sometimes the latter is needed, but don’t overuse it. If you do, you’ll destroy the notion of psychological safety in your relationships. We’re often in a rush to get things done and deliver results, and it’s easy to lose sight of the human being on the other end. We forget that their learning and growth needs to be part of the focus. But when we choose curiosity over critique, we make space for that. Ask questions. But do so to connect, not correct.

Sales tip: Default to curiosity, not convincing. Convincing sounds like this: “We’ve developed a breakthrough app that uses AI to predict open spaces in real time. It integrates with city sensors, offers guaranteed spots near the venue, and costs just $9.99 per event. Click here to download.” Feels pushy, right? You’re shoving your solution in my face. You don’t even know if I go to Miami for events. I haven’t even shared my experience yet, and suddenly I’m reading features, pricing, download links. My brain goes, “Here comes the sales pitch, time to tune out.” Compare that to curiosity: “Not sure if you’ve run into this, but I often hear that finding parking in Miami for an event feels like playing Mario Kart. You’re circling the block, dodging scooters, and praying for a spot to open up. How are you handling parking when you go to events in Miami?” Conversation started. Maybe there’s a problem. Maybe not. You’re letting go of assumptions. You’re sorting not selling. Curiosity opens doors. Convincing closes doors. This bears repeating. Default to curiosity, not convincing.

GenAI won't kill critical thinking. Comfortable leaders will. AMLE 's "Critical Thinking in the Age of Generative AI," a 2025 systematic review, and Microsoft's survey all point to the same tension ➤ AI can sharpen your thinking—or slowly dull it. Here are 9 ways to stay sharp: 1️⃣ "Treat AI as a first draft, never a final say"  ↳ GenAI's confident tone tricks your brain into skipping evaluation. ✅ Act on it: Ban "copy–paste" from AI into decision-critical docs. Require one human edit plus rationale before anything AI-generated moves upward. 2️⃣ "Ask AI to argue against itself"  ↳ Questioning and comparison strengthen critical thinking. ✅ Act on it: Always follow one answer with: "Now, give me the strongest counterargument." Share that practice with your team as a standard operating rule. 3️⃣ "Separate speed from wisdom"  ↳ Fast answers feel good; wise answers feel uncomfortable first. ✅ Act on it: For decisions that feel "too easy" after AI, pause and ask: "What are we not seeing?" Use AI to surface opposing viewpoints and edge cases—not just best practices. 4️⃣ "Build 'social critical thinking,' not just solo analysis"  ↳ Challenge assumptions together. ✅ Act on it: In key meetings, assign one person "AI skeptic" and another "AI translator." End with: "What assumptions are we accepting because AI made them sound reasonable?" 5️⃣ "Use AI to find blind spots, not excuses"  ↳ Confidence in AI can reduce scrutiny; leaders can reverse that. ✅ Act on it: Ask, "Whose perspective is missing?" and use AI to simulate that viewpoint. Include ethical, cultural, or stakeholder perspectives as separate prompts. 6️⃣ "Turn AI mistakes into a leadership curriculum"  ↳ Reflective use of AI strengthens thinking. ✅ Act on it: Collect "AI near-miss" stories and discuss them in leadership meetings. Ask: "What almost went wrong? What saved us? What changes next time?" 7️⃣ "Make your own thinking visible"  ↳ Leadership thinking is contagious. ✅ Act on it: Narrate your process: "Here's what AI suggested. Here's how I challenged it. Here's the decision." Encourage your direct reports to model the same. 8️⃣ "Audit where you've gone on AI autopilot"  ↳ Over-reliance creeps in quietly. ✅ Act on it: List 3 areas where you now "trust" AI outputs without checking. For each, design one review step that reintroduces human judgment. 9️⃣ "Upgrade your questions, not just your tools"  ↳ Tools are only as powerful as the questions behind them. ✅ Act on it: Replace "What should we do?" with "Given A, B, C constraints, what are 3 non-obvious options?" Evaluate question quality in team retros, not just answer quality. The question to keep asking: "Is AI helping me think better—or just faster?" Your leadership edge depends on the difference. Coaching can help; let's chat. ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Joshua Miller for more tips on coaching, AI-era leadership, career + mindset. ⸻ #ai #leadership #executivecoaching #careeradvice #manager #mindset