The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau
A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.
A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.
Curiosity isn't just a personality trait—it's a skill. When you learn how to practice it, you unlock greater problem solving, stronger teams and powerful leadership.
“Did you know that curiosity is your superpower? Though we often think of being curious as a personality trait, it’s actually the foundation of our capacity for connection, growth, and healing,” says Scott Shigeoka, author of Seek. Drawing on his research at UC Berkeley and groundbreaking classes at The University of Texas, Scott explores how to develop deep curiosity through his unique four-phase model, DIVE: from Detaching from your biases to even Embracing the hard times. He’s appeared on The Today Show and in Harvard Business Review to explain why and how to use this tool. In talks, he reveals the science-based, actionable strategies for unlocking radical curiosity that he’s shared with giants like Pixar, Airbnb, and Google. “Curiosity is such an energizing, creative, and exciting topic to explore,” says Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project). “Scott is the perfect person to tackle this subject.”
“Most people recognize the value of curiosity, but few know how to embrace and unleash it. Seek will help you close the gap between awareness and action. Scott Shigeoka’s thirst for understanding and connection is contagious, and his book is a timely bridge for our divided world.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author
While we often think of curiosity as a personality trait, it’s actually the most potent tool we have to bridge our differences and heal relationships: from political blow-ups to age divides at work; religious differences to languishing friendships; gun rights to gender rights. As an internationally-recognized curiosity expert and author of the blockbuster Seek, Scott Keoni Shigeoka explores the stories and science of curiosity as a fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and through his groundbreaking classes on the power of curiosity at the University of Texas at Austin. He also practices his research through national storytelling campaigns and immersive personal journeys, such as a 45,000-mile road trip to demonstrate how deep curiosity leads to connection, healing, and growth even across differences.
Scott’s book Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World is an original reporting from his journey across America. In this Amazon Best Science book, he explores why there is so much division, and more importantly, how we can heal. Along with a lifetime of practice and years of research at UC Berkeley’s GGSC, Scott developed the “DIVE” model for cultivating curiosity and transforming our relationships. The DIVE model focuses on the four “muscle groups” of curiosity: Detach (letting go of your assumptions, biases, certainty), Intend (preparing your mindset and setting), Value (seeing the dignity of every person—including yourself), and finally Embrace (welcoming the hard times in life). This highly anticipated title has garnered praise from experts like Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project) and Kristin Neff (Self-Compassion). “Scott explores the nature of curiosity and how opening our hearts and minds to the unknown can transform our experiences,” says bestselling author Kristin Neff.
Scott’s first book, the Bridging Differences Playbook, is packed with research-based strategies to promote understanding. For over 18 months, Scott worked with 100 leading experts, researchers, and practitioners to distill 14 everyday practices to bridge differences in our work and life. In the first 3 months of its release, it had over 200,000 reads, and has since been developed into a groundbreaking online course taken by ten thousand students.
In talks, Scott explores curiosity and its connections to every aspect of our lives—from work to our personal relationships. He blends cutting-edge research on curiosity with wisdom from years of grassroots community work and the stories of people living at the threshold of deep curiosity. With electric vulnerability, thoughtful storytelling, and actionable tools, he calls upon each of us to stop turning away from what is unfamiliar, uncomfortable or unknown and, instead, embrace our power to seek.
Scott is also the award-winning host of Made in America (produced by Sophie Harris, a long-time producer at HBO Docs), and has collaborated with musician David Byrne on the “We Are Not Divided” project (in lead-up to American Utopia, which was directed by Spike Lee). Scott’s dynamic, creative, and interactive keynotes and workshops have inspired C-Suite executives at Fortune 500 companies, legislators in Washington, D.C., showrunners in Hollywood, and leaders at educational institutions and national nonprofits. He and his research have appeared in Forbes, Fast Company, The Today Show, Harvard Business Review, CNBC, and more.
Scott was incredible. We ran out of time for him to answer all the questions that just kept coming. His energy was endless, and he was good at relating his content to our audience. I didn’t make it even halfway through the event before I was bombarded with side pings saying how warm, welcoming, and incredible he was and how meaningful his talk was. He's quite special and we are so thankful for his visit.
MicrosoftAuthor of Grit, the #1 New York Times Bestseller | Pioneering Researcher on Grit, Perseverance, and the Science of Success
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Creator of The 1619 Project | Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-Winning 1619 Project Hulu Docuseries | MacArthur Genius
Nike's Former Chief Marketing Officer | Author of Emotion by Design
CEO of The Atlantic | Former Editor-in-Chief of WIRED
Bestselling author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism | Harvard Business School Professor Emerita | Activist and scholar
Curiosity makes companies more creative, collaborative, and reduces fear and anxiety. But how do you make your company culture more curious? In this talk, Scott Shigeoka, internationally-recognized curiosity expert and author of Seek, guides you through the cornerstone practices that calls in transformative curiosity into your workplace.
As one example: Scott’s DIVE model, which he explores in Seek, is backed by his extensive research at UC Berkeley. The four phases, Detach, Intend, Value, and Embrace, are designed to spark deep curiosity in your work culture. The first step, detach, asks that you let go of your assumptions, biases and certainties. The last is to embrace—be ready to welcome the challenging times. In this talk, Scott walks you through each step of his method from start to finish, offering you a new framework for implementing curiosity across your organization.
With cutting-edge research and personal stories, Scott explores his many strategies and leaves you with concrete methods to lead your company to greater curiosity for transformative workplace productivity, innovation, and success.
The overlooked transformative skill for great leadership today? Curiosity. The best leaders use deep curiosity to cultivate productive, innovative and collaborative teams, says Scott Shigeoka, internationally-recognized curiosity expert and author of Seek.
In Scott’s dynamic, creative, and interactive talks, he shows you how to cultivate curiosity in order to navigate tension and conflict, complex problem-solving, and constantly moving markets that require ongoing learning and creativity. Delving into the four-phase method he’s developed—DIVE—he goes over the steps to sparking curiosity and transforming your leadership style: starting with the first step, detach, where Scott asks that you let go of your assumptions, biases and certainties, and finishing with: embrace—be ready to welcome even the challenging times.
Scott shares the insights that he’s revealed to C-Suite executives at Fortune 500 companies, weaving science and stories to equip you with the concrete methods that any leader can practice to create a thriving workplace and inspire others to join them.
In this interactive experience, Scott Shigeoka sits down with a moderator from your organization to chat about curiosity and his book Seek. Blending storytelling and science, Scott creates a unique and tailored experience that caters to the specific needs of your organization. He can forefront any aspect of his work on curiosity—from leadership to corporate culture, to democracy and polarization, and much more—so you can learn how to apply curiosity in your own organizations. In this fireside chat, Scott focuses on the concrete tools that you can apply every day to introduce more curiosity into your life. Audiences will walk away “recognizing curiosity as a critical practice for us to solve problems in our families, workplaces and society,” says Scott.