Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat

But Lack of Curiosity Could Kill the Company 

We’ve all heard the saying “Curiosity killed the cat.” But where does that come from, and what was it really warning against?

It turns out, the original saying, first recorded in the 16th century, was “Care killed the cat”, where “care” meant worry or sorrow. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that it evolved into a cautionary warning against curiosity. In a time when challenging authority or exploring new ideas could genuinely be dangerous - socially, politically, even physically - the warning made sense.

But the world has changed. In today’s fast-paced, hyper-connected business environment, it’s not curiosity that’s dangerous, it’s the absence of it.

Why Curiosity Matters More Than Ever

Walter Isaacson, who has chronicled the lives of Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs and others, says that “the key traits of genius are insatiable curiosity and the ability to connect the dots in new ways.”

While we may not all be geniuses, we can choose to be curious. We can choose to seek out new information, perspectives, and patterns - and in doing so, we expand the number of 'dots' available to connect, and so provide the innate creativity that we all have more material to work with.

This is more than just a personal trait. In the workplace, curiosity has strategic value. It fuels innovation, helps detect early warning signals, uncovers opportunities, and builds organisational resilience.

“The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.” 

                    Arie de Geus

And that learning starts with asking good questions.

Too Much vs Too Little

To be clear, we don’t want everyone challenging and second-guessing everything, all the time. That would be chaos.

But a culture where people don’t ask any questions, where they stop being inquisitive, stop noticing changes, and stop wondering why things are the way they are, quickly becomes stagnant. It stops learning. And in a world that’s changing fast, that’s dangerous.

A lack of curiosity can be particularly harmful at the leadership level. Leaders who don’t ask questions, don’t listen, or assume they already know the answers can lead their organisations straight into irrelevance.

Examples of Curious Companies

• Google's famous '20% time' initiative encouraged employees to spend a portion of their week exploring projects outside their immediate role. That curiosity led to products like Gmail and Google Maps.
• IDEO, the design and innovation firm,  builds its entire process around human-centred curiosity: observing behaviours, asking “why” repeatedly, and constantly shifting the status quo. 

• However, companies like Kodak serve as a warning; although curiosity about digital imaging was present in R&D, it was not listened to and certainly not acted upon by senior leadership. The well known result was a missed opportunity, and eventual collapse of a dominant brand.

Building Curiosity Into Your Culture

So how do you encourage curiosity without creating chaos?

Here are a few good practices:

• Lead by example: Ask questions you don’t already know the answer to. Be visibly curious.
• Encourage exploration: Give space for people to investigate, tinker, prototype, and learn.
• Normalise questioning: Make it safe to ask “Why?”, “What if?”, "So what?", or “What does this mean for us?”
• Value diverse thinking: Curiosity thrives when different viewpoints collide - or fuse! Consultants can be a great source of diverse perspective and questioning.
• Reflect openly: When things go wrong - or right - ask what you’ve learned. Ask why it happened. Ask what might change next time.

A curious culture isn’t about endless speculation. It’s about thoughtful inquiry, timely sense-making, and being open to challenge and change.

Final Thought

In a world full of uncertainty, curiosity becomes a competitive advantage. It helps organisations stay alert, adaptive, and ready for what’s next.

“In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth, while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

                  Eric Hoffer

So maybe the cat was onto something. After all, curiosity is what gave it nine lives.

 Ad Futurum 

Graham