4 Ways to Make Your IT Teams More Curious
Navigating the IT landscape in the CPG industry has become increasingly complex, and having the right talent can be the difference between consistently driving innovation or hitting dead ends. What, then, should be the prerequisite traits for building an IT team that delivers transformation and results?
Seventy-one percent of professionals say focusing on teams to cultivate culture, agility, and diversity is vital to building organizational success, according to a Deloitte study. Twenty members of Forbes’ technology council pointed to shared individual and group traits for successful tech teams, among them are integrity, critical thinking, the ability to thrive on challenges, and a culture of continuous learning.
At the foundation is typically someone curious by nature. In fact, job site Indeed reports that intellectual curiosity — the desire to learn more about the world and find the answer to deeper questions — makes employees better learners, helps them understand their workplace environment, and can help companies learn new concepts faster to develop creative solutions to problems.
“Curiosity in an IT team means actively seeking to understand new technologies, exploring innovative solutions, and asking insightful questions,” Hershey Company CIO Gene Kholodenko tells CGT. “It's essential for IT teams to be curious because of the rapid pace of technological change. A curious mindset drives adaptability, continuous learning, and the ability to stay ahead in a highly competitive industry.”
Learn the four ways to make IT teams more curious to foster a collaborative innovation mindset that drives business growth.
1. Embrace a culture of curiosity across the organization
Curiosity as a culture can impact employees’ well-being, help in hiring top talent, increase retention rates, and drive productivity and fulfillment at work, according to Scott Shigeoka, who conducted research on the topic at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.
Within IT, it allows for more diverse ideas, creative approaches, and self-disruption, making IT teams more adaptable to the one constant: change, says Kholodenko. Culturally, companies must be intentional about their approach to curiosity and innovation, he suggests. This includes setting aside time, budget, and organizational capacity to foster it.
“Have a structured approach that is shared and explained to all of IT and business partners,” says Kholodenko. “Encourage and reward collaboration across teams, regions, and business units.”
Earlier this year at Groceryshop, chief technology officer at Kellanova Ramesh Kollepara shared a similar mindset: “We have gone back into more of a culture of learning, bringing those learnings actually into the broader organization, creating that sort of curiosity, and honing that muscle."
2. Set up workers for success with upskilling opportunities
Often, the right talent is already within arm's reach. By providing existing workers with the opportunities to grow their curiosity, CPG companies can save on hiring costs and efforts and build growth from within.
This is especially important as external hires may be harder to come by. By 2030, Korn Ferry predicts there will be a global shortage of more than 85 million workers, resulting in a potential $8.5 trillion revenue loss. In tech, the U.S. could lose out on $162 billion worth of annual revenue unless it can find more high-tech workers, per the report.
“As with many economies, the onus falls on companies to train workers,” notes Werner Penk, president of Korn Ferry’s global technology market practice.
For his part, Kholodenko recommends three steps to encourage growth within in-house talent:
- Set aside a portion of the training budget for upskilling on relevant new technologies.
- Establish regular knowledge-sharing sessions with internal and external tech experts.
- Have leaders visibly encourage and reward teams and employees who are curious and unafraid to experiment.
3. Prioritize curiosity in hiring practices
For those that do need to seek outside help, gauging curiosity in hiring practices can help IT leaders identify picks that demonstrate a learning mindset, adaptability, and proactive problem-solving skills, says Kholodenko.
“By assessing applicants' interest in emerging technologies and their ability to ask insightful questions, IT leaders can build teams capable of evolving with industry trends and consistently driving innovation.”
Curiosity ensures potential hires not only keep their skills sharp but also remain open to learning new ones, behavioral expert and previous MBA program chair at the Forbes School of Business and Technology Dr. Diane Hamilton told Forbes. “It’s what turns a good employee into a great one because they’re constantly looking for ways to improve and innovate.”
4. Encourage experimentation by exposing talent to emerging technologies
Stepping out of the box is a necessity when looking to grow curiosity and reap the rewards, and this means exposing the IT workforce to technologies and ideas they may not yet have experience with.
During an AI summit last year, Jeff Chan, senior manager of enterprise innovation at TD Bank Group, compared this idea to giving someone a hammer for the first time. Exploration is a key factor in achieving growth and mastering a skill, especially within AI.
“You don't know exactly how you might be able to use it …. Give them a chance in the sandbox, start playing with it to figure out what's what,” he said. “Once they get to understand what the hammer does, then they can come back to us, and we can say, ‘How do we connect the dots between what you just learned on the hammer and to solve an actual problem?’ And then that's where magic happens.”
Kholodenko stresses encouraging IT businesses and teams to experiment in different environments, access new tools, and participate in training allows them to explore, test, and discover innovative applications to turn curiosity into improvements and competitive advantages. The result is often solutions for real business challenges, optimized operations, and new analyses of consumer insights.
“One question I like to ask is how many feel that generative AI will change how each of us works over the next one to five years. Most generally agree that it will,” says Kholodenko. “The next question is how many of us use generative AI daily — the answers here are typically mixed. So, if you think our jobs will evolve with AI, why are you not jumping in with both feet to be a part of this journey?”
Overcoming Challenges to Reap the Rewards
Organizationally, enterprises may encounter roadblocks when looking to integrate processes that nurture curiosity. One of the most significant challenges includes complacency among leaders like CEOs, according to Tiger Tyagarajan, senior advisor at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Martin Reeves, managing director and senior partner, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, in The Value of Being a Curious CEO.
Additional deterrents are siloed business functions that prioritize the optimizations of business parts rather than reimagined by curiosity as a whole; too much focus on direct returns rather than pursuing innovation fueled by “what could be”; and regimented goal setting that inhibits exploration.
When the restraints are freed, the trait can often unveil unanticipated benefits. For example, Kholodenko recalls a generative AI use case through which the company looked to gain insights into lost consumers.
By feeding the AI information about key customers, the technology could identify their reasons for leaving. And while 90 responses might not be useful, and maybe eight have already been explored, sometimes the one or two left are “eye-opening in terms of risk management and creating the future that not only prevents these scenarios but rather transforms them into business opportunities.”
Balancing innovation and efficiency with exploration helps foster a structured approach to curiosity within a defined framework such as an innovation funnel, he says.
“This encourages teams to explore and pilot new ideas within clear parameters while aligning with business goals,” says Kholodenko. “Throughout the innovation funnel, regular checkpoints and prioritization of work based on measurable impact help to drive tangible value from exploration efforts.”
