How Curious Is Your Organization? - An Interview with Deb Clary

File 30:  In today’s file, the team interviews Dr. Debra Clary her pursuit of the power of curiosity.  Deb has had a fascinating career path.  She’s worked in executive roles at Frito-Lay, Coca-Cola, Papa John’s, Brown-Forman and Humana.  Now, she’s helping organizations to better understand how curiosity impacts its performance, all because of an intriguing question.

Meet Deb Clary

Deb was the first person in her family to graduate from college.  She completed her bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University and earned her doctorate in leadership and organizational development, from George Washington University. 

Her starting role at Frito-Lay was different from what she’d imagined it’d be, but it yielded extremely valuable insights for her career.  She spent roughly a decade there, progressing through the ranks.  She joined Coca-Cola in various sales, marketing and global roles.  Her global client was Papa John’s.  They eventually invited her to join their organization, as the VP of Marketing and that brought her to Louisville. 

Deb shares she was actually fired from Papa John’s, a year into the role.  She admits having come from traditional, corporate environments, the Papa John’s culture was much less-structured and entrepreneurial.  Deb assumed a VP of Strategy role in Brown-Forman’s wine division, where she stayed for the next 3 years. 

Learning that there are significant differences in culture and how those differences manifest, especially in terms of human behavior, was a key milestone.  It provided insights into how organizations could create leaders that could have greater impact and contribution, in a way that was warm and welcoming. 

As Deb was completing her dissertation for her doctorate, she encountered someone from Humana.  It lead to a role in a leadership institute Humana was developing.  She eventually took on the challenge of leading the institute, which cultivated Humana’s top 1,000 leaders.  Deb remained with Human for 18 years. 

Deb recounts she was sitting next to her CEO, who asked her, “Do you think curiosity can be learned, or is it innate?”  It was an intriguing question.  After doing a deep dive into the research around that topic, she mentioned to the CEO that curiosity could indeed be learned.   

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