It’s not very often that we hear someone talk about the value of wonder (a.k.a. awe) inside of an organization. After all, it can feel too touchy-feely or even frivolous for many businesses.
That’s unfortunate. Because a sense of wonder can have a pretty awesome effect (see what I just did there?)
Let’s start with the people inside of those businesses. From Eric Barker, author of Barking Up The Wrong Tree:
In studies, awe makes people less selfish and more focused on the needs of the group. We become more generous. Writing about awe made people more patient and more likely to donate money or time to a good cause. UC Berkeley psychologist Paul Piff said, “Awe arouses altruism.”
And we need this feeling as we age. Children’s brains are alive with connections but post-adolescence a lot of those pathways — and that vibrance — get pruned. We go from wonder to wither. Our beliefs congeal and harden. Our consciousness gets narrow. The day-to-day…
