9 out of 10 workers acknowledge that it’s the curious person in the office that will most likely bring ideas and get promoted. But only 22% of workers describe themselves as curious, and only 12% say their employers are encouraging a strong desire to know or learn something. No wonder innovation doesn’t grow on trees!

Harris Poll lent pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA a helping hand in determining the overall state of professional inquisitiveness in workplaces across the United States and found that most workers face barriers in exercising curiosity. 60 percent say they aren’t given the chance to be agog over a concept or a bold idea, despite the general belief that such a conduit leads to achievement and promotion. Two out of three report impediments in asking questions (and subsequently having them answered) at work.

Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that experimentation is a key ingredient for success when chasing innovation. Breaking new ground often requires more than hard data. Sometimes, you just have to test new ideas without any guarantee that they will work.

Catch a glimpse of the The State of Curiosity in the American Workplace in the graphic below, complete with the ‘barriers’ and the ‘enhancers’ of curiosity, for a broader picture of how to champion innovation.