This is a guest post by Hilton Barbour, Strategic Planning Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo.

Evolutionary biologists will brand me a heretic but I believe that curiosity is the most wonderful attribute evolution has given us all. Granted it probably helped thin the herd when our Neanderthal ancestors inquisitively ventured too close to a saber-tooth tiger but it also helped us discover fire, how to use circular objects to enhance transportation, transport data invisibly and split atoms.

Curiosity should be celebrated in the same way we celebrate other evolutionary master strokes - like breathing, for example.

Like breathing though, I worry that we’ve all started to take this curiosity thing for granted.

Every couple of weeks, we’ll be sharing some of the things we do at Curiosity to foster creativity, lateral thinking, courage, innovation, collaboration and, of course, curiosity.

One of our most popular, pragmatic and powerful practices is TED Talk Tuesday.  

We started TED Talk Tuesday about a year ago and it’s incredibly simple.  Every week a member of our team is responsible for hosting.  We meet in our Project Room at 8:30am each Tuesday and the host shows their TED Talk pick for the week.  There is absolutely no agenda for the meeting other than the TED Talk screening and some discussion afterwards.  The meeting runs for 30-45 minutes.  Someone takes a few notes on the key themes from the TED talk and the ideas that emerge from the discussion afterwards.  These notes get posted to our Digital Library as a reference document in case anyone wants to come back to the TED Talk or the related themes at a later date.

In his ancient strategy classic The Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote: "He who does not know the other, but knows himself, will once win and once lose. He who knows the other and himself will never be at risk in a hundred battles." To beat the competition you need to think creatively and strategically about each move you make, and that starts with knowing and understanding who the competition really is.

When it comes to truly knowing your competition, traditional competitive intelligence tools like brand tracking, Homescan and focus groups aren't enough. These tools report on how the market is reacting to your competition, but provide little insight into the companies themselves. Plus, these tools have become so ubiquitous that they don't offer much of a competitive advantage.

Instead of waiting for the answers in quarterly reports, what if we started taking the time to ask new questions? If knowing our opponents is as important as Sun Tzu suggests isn't it worth thinking and wondering about them in a meaningful way?

I'm addicted to Netflix.

There, I've said it. And I'm going to stand up for my Netflix addiction and suggest that my passion for Netflix makes me better at my job. In fact, I might even start billing the company for my subscription.

The reason I know Netflix is good for my professional performance is connected to something that happened to me recently as a result of watching a BBC television series called MI5, a spy drama that follows the personal and professional lives of an ever-changing group of MI5 agents. It's bloody brilliant television and completely consuming, especially when you can watch one episode after another into the wee hours.

I was well into season six of MI5 when I was in the bathroom one morning brushing my teeth. When I reached down to rinse my toothbrush, I knocked my cleanser off the sink and the contents spilled everywhere. I immediately reached for the toilet paper to help with the clean up. When I pulled the loose end of the toilet paper roll, the toilet paper holder sprang apart, sending the toilet paper and parts of the holder flying off in all directions.

What would your reaction be?