THE CURIOUS ADVANTAGE

The Curious Advantage by Paul Ashcroft, Simon Brown and Garrick Jones is an exploration of the idea of Curiosity and its increasing importance for thriving in the digital age. Taking the widest possible exploration of things Curious – historical, contemporary, neuro-scientific, anthropological, behavioural, semantic and business-focused.
The Curious Advantage Learning. An image of screens displaying the Curious Leader course.
Curious Advantage compass logo
Curious Advantage compass logo
"By being curious, we give ourselves permission to be disrupted and to be open to something new. The moment we move from wondering to acting we start to become creative."
- Ashcroft, P., Brown, S., Jones, G. The Curious Advantage (2020)
The Curious Advantage Learning. An image of screens displaying the Curious Leader course.
WHAT'S INSIDE

WHY IS CURIOSITY THE GREATEST DRIVER OF VALUE IN THE DIGITAL AGE?

  • Understand how being Curious creates an advantage in our everyday lives – both online and offline.
  • Promote a culture of Curiosity within a global networked team, company and organizations.
  • Create and manage global, geographically diverse teams to discover new solutions, products or services.
  • Understand Curiosity as a Strategic Imperative and a Value Driver.
  • Share stories, examples and cases that prick our curiosity and stimulate others.
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“CURIOSITY IS CRITICAL FOR SUCCESS IN OUR INCREASINGLY COMPLEX WORLD.”
Vas Narasimhan, CEO, Novartis

SAILING THE 7Cs

At the heart of the book is our model of Curiosity, called ’Sailing the 7 C’s of Curiosity’.
This model provides individuals with a practical framework for how to be successfully Curious and use Curiosity as a power skill to unlock their own potential.

‍Interact with the model to explore
1. CONTEXT
The broader the context you expose yourself to, the more likely you will find new ideas that stimulate you to explore further.
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2. COMMUNITY
Curiosity is powered by our community. Societies or organisations with Curiosity as a specific part of culture are more productive and people are more engaged in learning and in their work.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
3. CURATION
We need to make choices and intentionally curate our Curiosity to synthesize and focus our thinking, our ideas and the information we are gathering.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
4. CREATIVITY
Our exploration into new worlds may require us to think differently, connect something in a new way and make a leap of faith. Sometimes, it's the spark that starts a new cycle of Curiosity.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
5. CONSTRUCTION
Curiosity is not just wondering. It is putting your wonder into action. This means making or constructing something to learn about it. Whether it's making new connections, building something physical, writing a document, a piece of music, building a business or just figuring out how something works.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
6. CRITICALITY
Asking questions is deeply connected to being Curious. It is the questions that prompt us to discover and find solutions. The type of questions we apply are important if we want to know if there is a different or better way. We also need to be aware of our own biases.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
7. CONFIDENCE
Confidence grows with Curiosity. The two grow with each other. If we approach something new with a curious mindset, being open to trying, failing and improving - we build our confidence.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.

SAILING THE 7Cs

At the heart of the book is our model of Curiosity, called ’Sailing the 7 C’s of Curiosity’.
‍
This model provides individuals with a practical framework for how to be successfully Curious and use Curiosity as a power skill to unlock their own potential.

‍Interact with the model to explore
1. CONTEXT
The broader the context you expose yourself to, the more likely you will find new ideas that stimulate you to explore further.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
2. COMMUNITY
Curiosity is powered by our community. Societies or organisations with Curiosity as a specific part of culture are more productive and people are more engaged in learning and in their work.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
3. CURATION
We need to make choices and intentionally curate our Curiosity to synthesize and focus our thinking, our ideas and the information we are gathering.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
4. CREATIVITY
Our exploration into new worlds may require us to think differently, connect something in a new way and make a leap of faith. Sometimes, it's the spark that starts a new cycle of Curiosity.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
5. CONSTRUCTION
Curiosity is not just wondering. It is putting your wonder into action. This means making or constructing something to learn about it. Whether it's making new connections, building something physical, writing a document, a piece of music, building a business or just figuring out how something works.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
6. CRITICALITY
Asking questions is deeply connected to being Curious. It is the questions that prompt us to discover and find solutions. The type of questions we apply are important if we want to know if there is a different or better way. We also need to be aware of our own biases.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.
7. CONFIDENCE
Confidence grows with Curiosity. The two grow with each other. If we approach something new with a curious mindset, being open to trying, failing and improving - we build our confidence.
The Curious Advantage. Navigation Menu Close Icon.

About the authors

Paul Ashcroft
Co-Founder and Partner at Ludic Group, Author of the Book ‘ALIVE: Digital Humans and Their Organizations’, Keynote Speaker and Facilitator. With a background in mathematics and strategic consulting, Paul is an expert in applying principles of Innovation, Design Thinking and Digital tools to accelerate large scale, sustainable change.

During his 20-year career, Paul has been working with the world’s leading organizations to design strategy, align leaders and implement, engage and motivate people. As an investor, Paul is successfully establishing and growing innovative and technology-based businesses that deliver global solutions. Paul has worked with many of the Fortune 500 and works extensively with SMEs. The ground-breaking programmes he designs and delivers, enable organisations to transform and make a successful shift to digital using platforms, powerful tools and methods.

Ludic is revolutionising global Consulting by delivering services digitally and redefining how transformation is successfully delivered in the hyper-networked reality of today’s organisations.

Paul is also a family man, black-belt in karate and published author.
Simon Brown
Simon is Chief Learning Officer at Novartis, a focused medicines company, and one of the leading companies in the world. He is a commercially-minded learning leader with experience across a range of the World's top organisations. In 2000, Simon co-founded Brightwave, one of the UK's leading e-Learning companies, which was eventually acquired by Capita Plc. Simon spent 7 years working for Accenture, advising companies including BT, BP, Microsoft, Canon, Barclays and HSBC.

In 2010, Simon moved to Lloyds Banking Group where he led the award-winning Bank-wide learning transformation. In 2013 Simon moved to Novartis global HQ in Switzerland, where he led various global learning teams. These including being responsible for enhancing effectiveness of learning for the global pharma SalesForce, creating the cross-divisional 'Global Development University', running the Novartis-wide Learning Centre of Expertise and Corporate Universities, and also defining the strategy for how Novartis would develop Digital Capability across the company. After leading the development of a new award-winning learning strategy, he became Novartis‘s first-ever Chief Learning Officer in February 2019. Since then Novartis has gained several global awards for learning including the award for ‘Learning Strategy Innovation’. Simon shares his experiences speaking at conferences around the world and with an active digital presence on the Linkedin platform. Simon lives in Switzerland with his wife Rachel, son Oliver, daughter Lucinda, their cat Paddy and a coop of chickens. He can be found most weekends struggling up a Swiss mountain road on his bike.
Garrick Jones
Co-Founder and Partner at Ludic Group, Author of the Book ‘ALIVE: Digital Humans and Their Organizations’, Keynote Speaker and Facilitator. Garrick Jones is an entrepreneur, academic and musician based in London. Co-Founder and Partner of The Ludic Group (founded in 2004), a pioneering consultancy, transforming the way people live, work and learn across time and distance. He is a renowned expert in Digital Transformation, Digital Learning and Engagement.

Garrick is a fellow of the Warburg Institute – the home of Curiosity. He also is a Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where he introduced Capstone programmes and designed the ground-breaking Open Innovation Programme. His research is focused on Creative Economies and large-scale support systems for commerce, culture, education and community development, in which innovation is critical. He is particularly focused on the value of the Design Process, visualization methods and tools for enabling decision-making and constructive problem solving. Garrick has been instrumental in the development of purpose-built collaborative learning environments (CLEs). He advises on numerous projects for corporations and governments focusing on state-of-the-art Think Tanks.

He works with Fortune 100 clients, governments, and the UN and UNDP. Garrick is interested in how very large systems are able to transform themselves. Wearing his musical hat, Garrick composes for films, contemporary artists and performance. Ask him to play the piano for you if you get the opportunity!