The episode where curiosity is king

In this episode we will start an adventure analyzing a few topics that will make anyone a stronger performer. 

This episode specifically focuses on curiosity and we will spend a bit of time on the three "Es" of learning which is complementary to the focus on curiosity, as mindset first and as skill later. 

Thank you for listening!

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Transcript

A truly powerful approach to work that gives the opportunity to learn something new every day.

Intro
Welcome to The In-House Life, the podcast that explores the experience and the challenges of an in-house council. I'm your host, Fabiola, and I have been working in the legal world full time since 2007. I wanted to share my experience as an in-house council to discuss content and knowledge and create more awareness about this career option.

Episode introduction
This, in the next episodes, took me a long time to prepare. Any prior version of them inevitably disappointed me. Until I understood the basic point about these episodes, I am focusing on mindset. Having this mindset is the approach that, in my own personal experience, is key to make the most of the role. Today the episode centers around the condizio sine qua non. It is the essential mindset to become better at the job first, and a precondition to become trusted legal advisor later. We're talking about curiosity, and we will walk through what I believe the term means and entails. We will also cover a few additional traits that I believe are ancillary to curiosity, and specifically we will talk about flexibility and the combination of thinking strategically and tactically. In other words, the inquisitive attitude and these traits complement each other, honing one will inevitably help develop the others.

Starting with curiosity, we briefly covered the topic in the second episode, the one dedicated to the trusted legal advisor, and I mentioned how it is an important skill to become a trusted legal advisor. However, it was just a bite-size episode, and I felt there is so much more to explore from the mindset associated with the term to why it matters.

Definition of curiosity
Curiosity, broadly speaking, refers to the desire to learn and know whether from scratch or to add to existing learning and knowledge. In my opinion, the keyword in this definition is desire, which indicates the mindset necessary for curiosity to be impactful. It is about wanting to learn and know. And having established this want, almost a need to be curious, then there are a few actionable steps that we can take to continue pursuing our curiosity mindset.

Tools for the curiosity journey
There are three powerful tools that work in this direction. The first is a statement and it's very powerful, which is tell me more. That will inevitably sparkle additional conversation around the topic that is being presented to you. The second, which has a bit more of critical component to it, but it's really not the goal to be critical. The goal is to gain a better understanding is the question why. And the last tool that is also used in terms of diffusing potential friction is to rephrase sentences, topics, facts, the way that you have understood them. My thesis in this episode is that curiosity is the foundation for success in any role. Without it, roles would be boring. And without the treasure hunt that our jobs, functional roles, and specifically in-house council roles can be and should be, we're missing on a big part of the entertainment that our jobs give us. Curiosity means to show interest in what is happening around us. In other words, it requires an inquisitive mind about people, events, processes and procedure. We said it starts with tell me more, it continues with a more potentially critical why mindset, it uses rephrasing as a powerful stimulating tool to continue the exploration.

Curiosity and the organization
So how do I apply these tools to my advantage? What should I apply my curiosity to? The first area which we've covered in briefly in the trusted advisor legal role is to focus on business. A trusted legal advisor should understand the group and or the company they work for. It starts from the big picture, the wider enterprise, and it goes into, let's say, this smaller picture, which is the specific area of responsibility, whether it is a functional area of responsibility or a or multiple business units being supported. An enterprise at its core is a combination of processes and procedures that result in an output. And I will use the term product throughout this episode to refer to all types of output, whether they are physical or a virtual product or services. Irrespective of the role, even in case of a very niche role,

It is important to understand how the entire enterprise operates. What are the products sold? And are there additional ways that the organization generates revenue? For example, license agreements on intellectual property owned by the enterprise. What are the customers of this organization? Starting from understanding if they are business to business, B2B, or business to consumer, B2C, and continuing to a more granular assessment. What industry is my customer working in? Is it a highly regulated market or a high risk market? so think about pharma, finance, medical devices, food contact, automotive, nuclear, aerospace. And the question could move on to the relationship with the customer. Is this an established relationship? Or is this a new customer? Is the customer structured and sophisticated? And I use this term to refer to a customer or a company that understands their business and their risks and operate accordingly. Or are the customers in a different phase, an earlier phase of their sophistication journey? And you can keep going down this path. And I don't think that it is possible to stop asking questions, even if one has been in the industry and in that particular organization for a very long time.

And there's three main reasons why I think that is the case. The first is it's always refreshing to ask the question in case things have changed. And while it is unlikely that major changes happen without your knowledge, it is possible that there are details that change. It is possible that there are scenarios that or external factors that have changed the organization. They can be internal, which is more likely something that it's more visible, a reorganization, a focus on certain businesses or a divestiture operation. It can also focus on external factors, and those can be in your control and outside of your control. Within your control, most likely is legislative updates where you have an understanding of where you develop an understanding of what is going on. Think about, for example, in Europe, the ESG legislative initiative of the European Union. On the other hand, you have external factors that are less visible. And so a competitor that is very disruptive or a change in a certain approach that seems to be successful. there are always reasons by which it is refreshing to ask the questions because things might have changed. The second which is probably one of the most important when it comes to creating a report with the organization is it shows interest in the organization and so it will always show that you have a vested interest in how things are going. And the last but not least is that there might be new people that joined the department, that joined the organization, that joined the business and the way that they explain the business to you might offer a different insight that allows you to make connections that you didn't think in the past.

My curiosity journey
I started learning about how intriguing this discovery process is. And I feel it was almost accidental while I was still working as outside counsel. And that happened specifically during due diligence processes. Traditionally, this part of the work was never particularly sexy, although we all understand that it's an essential part of the &A procedure. And they used to be very labor intensive. I understand that is not the case anymore. has artificial intelligence is providing quite a lot of support in this area, but I haven't had the privilege yet to make the experience directly. What I loved about the due diligence process was that despite all of the stress, the challenge, the time pressure, there was an opportunity to learn about a company and or a group. What was their business model? How did they tailor their company structure, their contracts, or anything else to fit? with their activities and the company culture. This curiosity and the one, almost the need to understand how things are done followed me in my in-house role. I often find myself asking questions about how things actually work. An inquisitive approach does not and should not stop at the activities related to my day-to-day business. I often find myself asking questions about other functions. How do you operate? What do you do? What do you focus on? And while this might upset some people in other roles and with other responsibilities, once you have a very candid conversation about what you're trying to achieve, in the vast majority of times, the reaction is very positive and there is also an interest in sharing more of what the other departments are doing. So how do I allocate time to learn how an organization in its broadest sense works? There is the traditional, let's say, situation in which it is the activity that you do when you start in a new company and or you start a new role. But more often than not, the time spent learning how an organization works is organic. It is part of your day to day operation. If there is a particular topic problem issue that requires analysis, most likely this will lead me to ask questions, which allows me to achieve two accomplishments. On one hand, to gather a greater understanding of the group, which is always useful, whether you're going to use it in a minute afterwards or you're going to use it a hundred times in the next 25 years, it doesn't matter. You still gain additional understanding about the organization as a whole. And the second, which is not insignificant, is to gain more confidence in the knowledge and getting closer to that coveted role of trusted legal advisor.

While this additional wrinkle I'm going to add is not relevant for everybody, it definitely bothers me personally when I'm not able to provide answers to questions, especially when they revolve around who should be involved in decision making. And while this inquisitive mind is not limited to delegation of authority, delegation of authority is often a great starting point to know who needs to be involved. And that is not only a question of what department needs to be involved, but it is a question about who in the individual who needs to be engaged in that process. having an inquisitive mind allows you to understand what information will this person and or department want to know? What is the procedure within that department? How receptive or not receptive the individuals are? How early do you need to involve these individuals in the process?

Hence having this understanding, this wealth of knowledge makes me feel more in control on one hand, and on the other hand, it gives me also an element of satisfaction when I can provide this additional value to the organization. Incidentally, knowing processes and procedures tend to help when it comes to process improvements. Knowing the why is also a powerful element associated with process improvement. In fact, efficiency is important. However, keeping in mind the goals and objectives of certain procedures can lead to better decision making. And to make a very superficial example, nobody should remove a safety control check from a production process for efficiency, although not knowing that that particular check is done for safety purposes might lead to poor decision making. Tangent aside, inquisitive approach really helps in getting to know all the aspects of the company, including and probably first and foremost, the culture of the company.

Curiosity and hard skills
Being curious does not only apply to learning the environment you're working in, it also applies to hard skills, the technical expertise, the legal expertise we bring into the organization. We have to be inquisitive and we need to understand what areas of knowledge development are required. How much or how little we do of this development assessment depends entirely on our own. And there is a few ways to think about a deep dive into the law. On one hand, we have risk mitigation, which is understanding a risk even under a different legislation. And yes, this traditionally applies to in-house roles, especially if you are sitting in EMEA. And it is a scary process. It is imperfect. However, you are, as a legal counsel, in the best position to provide guidance on legal risks. Therefore, the suggestion is, as per usual, to be curious about other laws and develop a greater understanding of these topics, too. Now, if you are sitting in EMEA, it is helpful in the European Union that the process might not be as scary as it used to be. Having directives or even better regulations help us doing our job more effectively.

The other aspect here, which is a bit more traditional, is really studying either our area of expertise, and that can be done by reading decisions, reading opinions, having access to newsletters, participate in conferences, or it can be development of other areas of expertise that might be relevant for your role. And sometimes these areas are something you're passionate about. Other times it's really a key requirement of the current role. Never though, never, never, never stifle this want to learn more. It is paramount for long-term success.

A learning tangent 
And on a tangent on learning, as I believe it colors most of this episode, but generally speaking, all of our journey, long journey as in-house councils, learning and knowledge do not only come from education. There are many studies that have established a different principle, and we're going to be talking about one specific here because it's something that stuck in my head as it is so clear. And it's the principle of the three E's of learning, education, exposure, and experience. And there are specific percentages of success associated of learning associated with each of these terms. But before I share those with you, let's spend a little bit of time exploring each of these items. Education is the more formal process of this list. It's either learning a textbook, participating into a course, learning from a seminar or executive education. And it is designed to provide you with specific, let me call it textbook knowledge. Exposure is a bit more nuanced and it is the scenario in which you are exposed to specific project in your day-to-day business, but not in a first-person scenario. And so if I want to run an analogy about this, it is being in the car, in the passenger's seat. I get to see everything that is going on, but I do not benefit from driving the vehicle directly. This is a powerful tool. For example, when it's the first time tackling a new subject. I remember the first time I had exposure to a recall scenario. The exposure was great. It helped me understand the questions and the knowledge that I needed to gain in every specific circumstance in order to provide advice. And yet it was never as powerful as when I had to run the matter on my own. And there is a saying that exemplifies what I'm suggesting here, which is there is no substitute for experience. And just to give numbers, learning should be divided in 70 % experience, 10 % education and 20 % exposure. Being in the driver's seat, just to continue the analogy we made before, is the most powerful way to learn. It comes with baggage.
It can be scary, taxing, stressful, difficult, complicated. And yet, if you reflect on your own knowledge journey, you will agree with me that the most powerful moment of learning was connected to experience. Now, circling back to curiosity, we covered how curiosity can be helpful to be more grounded in the organization and help us determine areas of heart scale to develop as well.

Curiosity and soft skills and people
There are two more areas to focus on. If you have the time, the inclination, and the support from your organization. And those are your own soft skills and people. Now these are relatively new areas for me. And while I've intuitively spent a lot of time in understanding how I can be more influential for decision-making, I never really approached it with a leadership training. And if you get the opportunity, you should not waste it. If you're offered an opportunity to do a leadership training, just go for it. You will get a better understanding of what makes you tick.

For instance, are you an extrovert where your energy comes from interacting with others, in which case you should make sure you spend time with others, or are you an introvert, which means that your energy comes from within, which means you need to reserve time and space to yourself in order to recharge? And how you can better interact with people who are different than you. Intuitively, you will have done a lot of the material, a lot of the content that will be discussed during the leadership training, but having a framework where you can insert all the information in a more structured way is, in my opinion, game changing. And while I do not want to spend too much time on this particular area, as I said, it's my expertise, I feel is limited compared to other areas. I encourage you to explore this knowledge journey, and this will be essential to take the next step. And the cool thing about this journey is that everybody has a different experience. Nobody will do the exact same journey. And it is pretty good to understand your own strengths and weaknesses in order to develop awareness first and then strategies to mitigate or enhance those characteristics. To summarize, curiosity is the cornerstone for mindset and skill development. It is an impactful way to ask questions such as tell me more and or why. And it has a broad application from the organization, including its culture to your head skills, soft skills, and then the relationship with others in the organization. A truly powerful approach to work that gives the opportunity to learn something new every day. And this is where, at least for me, I'm at my happiest. Having been able to end the day having said that I've learned something new is one of the most important feelings to have on a daily basis.


Outro 
Thank you for spending time with me today and listening to my point of view.
If you want to reach out to me, please feel free to email me at the address in the episode information. In the next episode, we will be talking about flexibility and the combination of thinking tactically and strategically, and that will be followed by another episode talking about additional key soft skills for in-house councils. If you find the information I shared with you valuable, please consider following this podcast, leaving a review or a star rating, depending on which platform you're using, and supporting the journey by word of mouth. Thank you so much and have a great day.