I came across an absolutely marvelous comment about stories from Jim Signorelli’s blog on the CMO.com website. He mentioned that stories don’t tell us how to think or what to value, but they ‘provide a welcome freedom to self-select the truths we read into them.’
That made me think of watching Curious George with my son before he went to school.
One of the episodes was ‘No Know Gnocchi’, which chronicles a cat named Gnocchi and a cook in an Italian restaurant. Gnocchi left the back alley behind the restaurant after the cook cleaned the area up. The cook was very sad and tried to make food in different ways so Gnocchi would come back; he didn’t. George wanted to help because the food wasn’t the same since Gnocchi left.
Since George is curious, he looked at various reasons why Gnocchi liked playing behind the restaurant. After some avenues he tried didn’t pan out, he fished around some more and came across an album that showed photos of Gnocchi scratching on things in the alley that had been cleaned out by the cook and photos of Gnocchi scratching on things around the neighborhood, such as trees, burlap sacks and the back side of carpets. George then found like items and constructed things in the alley that Gnocchi would want to scratch.
George used the information at hand to analyze what was going on and to explore potential solutions. When a couple of ideas didn’t work, he looked for more information, connected similar events in different locations at separate times and made a connection to the proper solution that the cook didn’t notice.
Using George to understand Respecting
I found two things particularly interesting about this Curious George episode. First, I took a specific message from the story and wondered what my son thought. He didn’t answer, possibly embarrassed that he likes Curious George at his age (what does that say about me?). That falls right into Jim Signorelli’s comment. I interpreted the story by finding that it’s quite inspiring to watch children and child-like behavior. It’s giving me a feeling of openness to explore and innovate than I ever would have thought. I’m finding that it's making me a better businessperson and executive coach. I’m getting insights that I wouldn’t have if I was more serious and structured (see my blog about coloring outside of the lines). Getting out of your element can be a catalyst for new ideas and growth spurts.
Secondly, Curious George is quite an analyst. He goes on the ‘fishing expeditions’ that represent good analytical people who find what the real story is that enables good decision-making. He remains observant, open and of course, curious until he finds the right solution. Using available data and connecting it in appropriate ways to make solid, confident business decisions is critical to achieving your goals as a person and a company. Being curious enough to keep looking and being open to various possibilities (which the cook wasn’t) allows you to gain insights that would otherwise remain hidden.
Children are respecting a great deal of their world because they have a lot to learn. We adults could learn from how they see things differently and interpret the world around them in different ways, which seems similar to how we older people try to pin Millennials and Gen Z people to thinking they way we think when they have so much to offer.