At TrippNT, we are fortunate to have low employee turnover and high employee engagement. As we have embraced Lean over the past 5 years, we have discovered a key core value of ours that helps us hire the right people: Desire to Learn.
We know that because learning is mindfully woven into the fabric of our day, a person with little desire to learn will not be happy here. But according to a study conducted by Business Wire, 91% of people self-identify as curious.
So, there is one additional characteristic that contributes to our Desire to Learn: being humble. It is one thing to have a desire and curiosity - but it's an entirely different skill set to accept and learn from mistakes.
Armed with some training in scientific thinking (we love the book Toyota Kata by Mike Rother) our employees' humble approach and genuine curiosity allows for continuous learning and improvement.
Curious People are Happier
According to a 2022 study by nature.com, there is a direct correlation between curiosity and well being. (1)
From the study:
Consistent with the broaden-and-build framework1, being curious and gathering information may foster positive states and coping with social restrictions by reducing loneliness feelings through increased engagement and exploration. Individual differences in loneliness and resilience have previously been linked with personality traits17,18, with people scoring higher on extraversion and openness reporting lower loneliness feelings and higher well-being. Our findings contribute to this, by showing that a person’s trait curiosity and momentary information-seeking motivation also predict higher well-being, mediated by a lower level of loneliness during a socially challenging and uncertain time.
And who doesn't want happier people right?
Interviewing for Desire to Learn
- Ask the person about a failure that they've learned from
- Ask about improvements they've made at other employers
- Listen for "we" versus "I" - a strong indication of humble behavior is acknowledging that accomplishments are almost always collaborative
- Observe genuine enthusiasm (or lack of) for learning
Conclusion
Finding the right talent can be a challenge. Knowing a couple of key characteristics that will allow an employee to thrive in your environment is a significant first step.
We'd love to hear from you about your company's approach to discovering talent. Shoot us an email at lean@trippnt.com.
1.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9094121/