Wonder involves a main component of feeling startled and one of incipient interest and search. It is the first of all passions, the precondition for people’s deep interest in anything beyond self and a primary engine of imagination, appreciation and empathy at work.
Enchanted and powerful inquiry begins in wonder, proceeds by means of a series of moments of wonder and ends with an explanation that produces when first seen or heard, a new and powerful experience of wonder.
“The curious mind is constantly alert and exploring, seeking material for thought, as a vigorous and healthy body is on the qui vive for nutriment. Eagerness for experience, for new and varied contacts, is found where wonder is found. Such curiosity is the only sure guarantee of the acquisition of the primary facts upon which inference must base itself.”
John Dewey (1910:31) How we think
TIPS FOR GOOD PRACTICE
Wonder cannot be controlled at the level of one specific activity. One can however cultivate habits of working that increases the chance that wonder will happen.
- Stimulus: To cultivate openness and receptivity to the unusual, beautiful and monstruous; to train one’s senses of observation and appreciation in everyday work.
- Expansion: To allow stimulus to be followed by free play of thought; tolerate uncertainty, bewilderment and ambiguity; to resist reaching for premature conclusions.
- Immersion: To let go of self and seek imaginative participation in the phenomenon of investigation, getting on the inside, taking the eye perspective of the other.
- Explanation: To learn to appreciate the feeling of wholeness and beauty associated with breakthrough explanations and ideas.
Readings for inspiration
Anderson, D. R. (2005) “The esthetic attitude of abduction”. Semiotica 153(1) 9–22.
Carlsen, A. and Sandelands, L. Forthcoming. “What would Martha do? Towards a theory of wonder in organizational inquiry”. Paper under editorial review.
Carlsen, A. and Dutton, J. (Eds.) (2011) Research Alive. Exploring Generative Moments in Doing Qualitative Research. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2001) Upheavals of thought. The intelligence of emotions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
Rubinstein, M. (2008) Strange Wonder. The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe. New York: Columbia University Press.