FIRST PERSON
by Hilary Lichterman
From my earliest days, Curious George captivated my attention in a way that led to an unwavering sense of wonder about what would happen next in his adventures. Now, nearly two decades in as a full-time professional in campus housing, I recognize that curiosity is a mindset I have consciously and subconsciously embraced over time as I navigate and lead change and continually develop my professional values and habits. Although curiosity may not be a novel word to many of us, it has practical and compelling benefits for us as individuals, leaders, and community members in our roles and beyond.
Books are one of my love languages. A few months ago, I noticed that the word curiosity kept surfacing in conversations with family, friends, mentors, and colleagues. I took to the internet and Linked In to search for a book or other resources on the topic. Within minutes, I found quite a page-turner, Stefaan Van Hooydonk’s The Workplace Curiosity Manifesto: How Curiosity Helps Individuals and Workplaces Thrive in Transformational Times (2022). The phrase “transformational times” immediately captured my attention as it sums up what feels like every day in our world, higher education, student affairs, and campus housing. As I navigated through the book, savored the reflection questions at the end of chapters, and clicked through the Global Curiosity Institute website, I had many flashbacks to moments of my journey, realizations about current practice, and many glimmers of hope for what lies ahead.
Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that the only constant in life is change. In campus housing, we are no strangers to changes, and the ever-changing and unpredictable landscapes require us to remain attentive and open-minded to all possible pathways – a hallmark of curiosity. Simultaneously, we must challenge the status quo while working within and generating different solutions and resources. Curiosity can counter fear, complacency, reckless abandonment of effective strategy, and loss of trust among our internal and external stakeholders.
As a practitioner who craves learning, I have multiple go-to strategies when trying to think from a place of abundance for navigating change rather than falling too easily into deficit thinking. These are daily habits that come more easily some days than others. Some of these strategies include mind-mapping ideas on paper, engaging in inquiry-based conversations with team members and colleagues, learning about new technologies, exploring resources within professional associations, and devouring as much content as I can from books, podcasts, external associations, and friends who serve in different industries. I often enjoy the iterative nature of learning, developing new questions and celebrating new mindsets and approaches that were not as evident before my curiosity-inspired scavenger hunt.
One of the most significant turning points in my career came after years of internal angst about identifying a dissertation topic. The list I generated had approximately 12 viable studies. I leaned into curiosity and passion and started on a journey with what seemed like a million questions in mind. Ultimately, studying organizational conditions and the lived experiences of students, staff, and campus partners when adopting a paradigm shift related to student learning fed my love for what keeps me now, years later, laser-fascinated about organizational cultures, systems, and how humans have the capacity to develop new knowledge, transform environments, and produce valued results.
Viewing human beings as social creatures, Hooydonk understands curiosity not just in terms of curiosity about the world, but also empathic curiosity about others, which is akin to the energy I get when hearing team members question the status quo about our work in favor of unique approaches, partnering with others to propose conference sessions, engaging in communities of practice such as the operational learning workgroup for the Association's Future of the Profession Initiative, and investing in relationships with colleagues who hold diverse identities and experiences. These commitments are examples of experiences along my journey when I consistently appreciated the fact that there is always more to learn and oftentimes unlearn. Many colleagues tell me it’s my Wisconsin-accent utterances such as “ooooh” that show up in conversations and are a common sign that my curiosity has been piqued.
I am curious, my fellow colleagues, about what assumptions we hold true in campus housing that can be adjusted if we use curiosity to examine our mental models. As Hooydonk notes, “A fish does not know it swims in water.” Just as our students are with us to learn and grow, our mental models and practices can be most effective when we commit to mindsets such as learning is iterative, hierarchy limits curiosity in teams and organizations, celebrating failure is an opportunity for possibility, and challenging outdated mindsets and approaches opens the way for continuous improvement. When thinking about promising or best practices, and even foundational scholarship, we can apply concepts associated with curiosity to balance what we knew and what we have yet to discover – all while keeping the spark or our “why” for what we do in its brightest and most beautiful form. With curiosity as a catalyst, the impact of the student experience can be an epic win for all involved.
Learning more about and reflecting on curiosity, beyond my own lived experiences and assumptions, was a meaningful way to exercise and tone my curiosity muscles. This activity, one shared by Hooydonk in the book, is a worthwhile and intentional act. In campus housing, we have endless ways to cultivate environments and habits that are central for curiosity to thrive. In the hustle and bustle of our days, my hope is that each of us will continue to embrace and continually hone habits and mindsets that challenge us to consider, cultivate, and create what lies ahead for students and the campus housing experience within the broader ecosystem of our campuses and higher education.
Hilary Lichterman is the director of housing and residence life at Seattle University in Washington.