Rejecting cynicism
One thing that experience has taught me is that it is very easy to be cynical.
Rolling your eyes or trading private messages at the latest corporate nonsense or political shambles feels easy to do. Cynicism is like a warm, familiar jumper, comforting, protective, and requiring absolutely zero effort. You can sit there smugly, knowing you called it right when things inevitably go pear-shaped.
Y2K, Six Sigma, TQM, ERP, Big Data, Lean, Agile…it was very easy to be cynical about all of these!
And I was this person many times during my early employment, using phrases such as:
'Here we go again'
'I told you so'
'This will never work'
'We’ll never be able to do that'
'They do a steady trade in wishful thinking this lot'
'Another white elephant'
'Tried it. Failed. Next…'
But the thing I've learned after almost forty years of work; curiosity and open-mindedness beat cynicism every single time.
When you replace 'Oh, here we go again' with 'I wonder why they're doing it that way?', something different happens. Suddenly that new policy becomes a puzzle worth solving rather than ammunition for your next rant. The project that's gone sideways becomes a learning opportunity rather than just another reason to despair into your third coffee of the morning. The new technology that’s being extolled as ‘game changing’ becomes something to learn about, not something to be ignored.
I've seen this cultural transformation happen countless times in organisations across the globe. Teams that were stuck in cycles of complaint and blame suddenly start asking better questions. Instead of ‘Why is senior management so useless?’ they begin wondering ‘What pressures are they facing that we don't see?’
The shift is subtle but profound and at its core is agency; the sense that you have the power to think and act differently in order to produce different results.
Curiosity doesn't make you naive, it’s quite the opposite, actually. When you're genuinely interested in understanding rather than just being right, people start talking to you differently. They share information they wouldn't normally reveal. They share their real concerns with you rather than feeding you corporate speak. You become someone who solves problems rather than someone who just identifies them.
This is not about ‘playing the politics game’ or ‘sucking up’ (that’s cynicism speaking), it's reframing in order to generate trust.
Curiosity also builds better relationships. When you're genuinely interested in understanding someone's point of view - even when you disagree with it - they feel heard. And people who feel heard are far more likely to collaborate, compromise, and come up with creative solutions together.
And honestly, curious people enjoy their days more. When you approach your day wondering what you might discover, even the mundane becomes interesting.
Don't get me wrong, the world still serves up plenty of reasons to be cynical. Politics remains a circus, some organisations are genuinely dysfunctional, and yes, people can be frustrating. But cynicism is lazy thinking disguised as wisdom.
Curiosity takes more effort, but it feeds you in ways that last. It opens doors, creates connections, and transforms problems into possibilities. The world's still a bit mad (this hasn’t changed in my 55 years!), but it's also endlessly interesting.
So next time you feel that familiar cynical sneer creeping in, try asking a question instead. Your future self will thank you for it.
