Medical Device Firms Using Social Media, Step #2.1: Curious People Make Better Conversation Partners
I'm interesting? You're fascinating!
Frenemies are talking—according to one medical-device insider—but mostly because the genie is out of the bottle. What we need is a wave of curiosity to beset our organizations.
You know and love curious people: they are the ones who unearth some fact about you when in conversation, find it fascinating, and then probe your knowledge of it. And when anybody finds us fascinating—they are instantly fascinating themselves.
Seth Godin, in Tribes, describes the difference between a fundamentalist and a curious person. He wasn’t talking (only) about religion. A fundamentalist receives new information or experience and immediately compares it with established dogma with the intent to reject (or perhaps even approve). In contrast the curious person receives the new information or experience and immediately engages what they have learned with what they know, looking for areas of overlap and disagreement. The curious will also reject ideas, but not before engaging, understanding and even mentally giving the idea a test drive.
Bless the hiring managers who incorporate curious regulators and lawyers into these positions—people willing to explore a changing communication landscape even while respecting the letter of the law.
Can we resolve to test for curiosity before hiring?
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Photo credit: OpenPhoto / Sarah Klockars-Clauser
conversation is an engine 
[…] all the reasons I’ve been writing about, from lack of curiosity to the absence of questions to simple lack of insight into his audience, his sales pitch did not […]
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