A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas

by Warren Berger

many companies—whether consciously or not—have established cultures that tend to discourage inquiry in the form of someone’s asking, for example, Why are we doing this particular thing in this particular way?

one of the telltale signs of an innovative questioner: a refusal to accept the existing reality. He’d

One of the many interesting and appealing things about questioning is that it often has an inverse relationship to expertise—such

within their own subject areas, experts are apt to be poor questioners. Frank

“One good question can give rise to several layers of answers, can inspire decades-long searches for solutions, can generate whole new fields of inquiry, and can prompt changes in entrenched thinking,” Firestein writes. “Answers, on the other hand, often end the process.”

“In our culture, not to know16 is to be at fault, socially.”

could respond with the question Oh my God, what are we going to do? Faced with the same situation, one might ask, What if this change represents an opportunity for us? How might

A reporter doing an interview concludes33 by asking Einstein for his phone number, and Einstein reaches for a nearby phone book. While Einstein is looking up his own number in the book, the reporter asks why such a smart man can’t remember it. Einstein explains that there’s no reason to fill his mind with information that can so easily be looked up.