The Quickest Way to Improve Your Professional Life: Lean Out the Window

By Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman

When I was first starting out in the movie business — I was 27 years old — I had a third-floor office at Paramount Studios, with windows overlooking the walkways crisscrossing the Paramount campus. In those days the windows in office buildings still opened, and I would lean on the window sill and shout down to people walking by — Howard Koch, who co-wrote Casablanca, Michael Eisner, who went on to be CEO of Disney, Barry Diller, who was CEO of Paramount.

I had made a rule for myself that, for three months, I was going to meet one new person in show business every day, as a way of creating my own connections, but also as a way of broadening my experience, a way of making sure I was meeting people that I wouldn’t meet in the normal course of work.

One day, leaning on the windowsill, I spotted Ron Howard walking by.

After a childhood and adolescence as a renowned actor, Ron was at Paramount trying to become a director — in exactly the way I was trying to become a producer. I didn’t shout down to Ron (which was probably smart), but I did call him up that afternoon and persuade him to come by and talk movie ideas.

As soon as Ron walked into my office, I was struck by this aura around him. I could tell he made good decisions, he had a strong moral compass, a conscience.

We connected so well that we determined to work together immediately. Ron directed the first two theatrical movies I produced — Night Shift and Splash. We worked so well on those movies that we went out to create our production company, Imagine Entertainment, together — becoming business partners, artistic partners, and close friends of 30 years. Outside of my children, Ron has been the most important person in my adult life — and curiosity led me to Ron, the curiosity, you might say, of “leaning out the window,” of simply seeking out a conversation with someone just because they look interesting.

That may seem simplistic: Meeting someone new in your own business every day for a month or two or three. It is simple, but it’s not simplistic.

First, imagine if you did what I did: Met a new person in your own line of work, every day, for 8 weeks, 40 new people. Especially if you (smartly) dip into the parts of your business or even your own company that you don’t normally work in, think of the breadth of experience and perspective you’ll have, from just a few minutes of conversation.

The questions don’t need to be deep to be revealing and enriching. “Hi, I’m Brian, I work in movie production....

         What are you guys working on?

         What do you all see coming that’s going to change things?

         What are you all excited about?

         Who’s doing the most interesting work in your zone?

         What are you all worrying about these days?

And more personally, the easiest question is the one I’m always surprised to get such revealing answers to:

         Glad to meet you...so how did you end up working here?

The goal isn’t to learn something you can act on — just the opposite. The goal is to learn something you didn’t know you were missing. The goal is to have your own perspective “disrupted” — even if it’s just so learn how the sales force sees customer service; or how HR sees the new health care rules.

The goal is to be surprised, and also to have a little fun.

It’s also true that if, from those 40 people, only 15 percent of them turn out to be allies, well, just a few weeks from now, you’d have six people you could call on for guidance or support or insight, people you don’t even know now.

There’s another benefit to doing this: This kind of curiosity becomes second nature, it becomes a habit. You realize how easy it is to meet new people, and how valuable.

I’d argue that, in terms of the benefit weighed against the almost trivial “cost,” introducing yourself to people you don’t know who work in your company or your industry, and having a brief curiosity conversation, is about the best investment of 10 minutes you can make each day.

Every part of my life would have been much different if I hadn’t spotted Ron Howard crossing the quadrangle at Paramount, and determined that he was the person I was going to meet that day.

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For more on using curiosity as a personal superpower — in Hollywood, at work, and in your own life — read Brian Grazer’s new New York Times bestseller, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, co-authored with journalist Charles Fishman.

Brian Grazer is the Oscar-winning producer of such movies and TV shows as A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, 8 Mile, Arrested Development, and Empire. Charles Fishman (cnfish@mindspring.com) is a journalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Big Thirst and The Wal-Mart Effect.