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Why are we in business? (And by the way—what business are we really in?) Almost every company would acknowledge that it is in business to make money so that it can stay in business. But most companies, if you trace their origins, were started for more complex reasons than that. Many of the companies featured in this book—Patagonia, W. L. Gore, Nike, Airbnb, Panera, Netflix—started out on a quest to fill an unmet need, to make some aspect of our lives a bit easier, more convenient, more enjoyable. Most good companies are born trying to answer a question and solve a problem, which provides an
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What is our company’s purpose on this earth?
What is true about us, at our core?”
(Why does this problem exist? Why hasn’t anyone addressed it?).
What if a running shoe could run your life?
Who would miss us? The answer to that can help clarify who your most important customers are and what your real purpose is.)
one of the most important questions companies should ask regularly is What should we stop doing? Company
What if money were no object? How might we approach the project differently? By temporarily removing these restrictions, people’s imaginations are freed up to find the best idea, cost notwithstanding. You might end up with a groundbreaking possibility that can then be scaled back to make it more affordable. What
What if we could only charge ten bucks for our hundred-dollar service?—it forces a rethinking of real-world practicalities and assumptions. Sometimes the fantasy becomes reality. As the business consultant and Dartmouth University
What does the world need most . . . that we are uniquely able to provide?
how do companies get better at experimenting? Ries says you start with the acknowledgment that “we are operating amid all this uncertainty—and that the purpose of building a product or doing any other activity is to create an experiment to reduce that uncertainty.” This means that instead of asking What will we do? or What will we build? the emphasis should be on What will we learn? “And then you work backwards to the simplest possible thing—the minimum viable product—that can get you the learning,” he says.
What is something I believe that nearly no one agrees with me on?
How might we? It’s a simple25 way of ensuring that would-be innovators are asking the right questions and using the best wording. Proponents of this practice
Why are we trying so hard to make another green-striped soap?
the Google+ team. HMW proponents say this form of questioning can be applied to almost any challenge—though it works best with ones that are ambitious
Jack Dorsey, one of the cofounders of Twitter, is a business leader who embraces the credo, “Question everything.”
Dorsey maintains that good design is about removing unnecessary features by continually asking, Do we really need this? and What can we take away?
What does a CEO look like and feel like? What’s the texture of what you’re supposed to be?
“For a long time, I have been asking myself this question: “Where did the balance between thinking and doing get out of equilibrium?”
transform it into a more open-ended, fluid mission question that can still be ambitious (replacing, for example, We make the world a better place through robotics! with How might we make the world a better place through robotics?). By
How xan we impfove the lives of our consumers
keep asking, What are we doing? Why are we doing it? How might we do it better?
when a company is trying to build a culture of inquiry, “it’s not about slogans or putting up posters on the wall, it’s the systems and the incentives you create for people that promote the behavior.
some companies are now working on is How do we transform a workplace into a learn-place?
to use language that is open and inclusive (How might we?).
John Hagel suggests you ask yourself13 this question: When I look back in five years, which of these options will make the better story? As
“Thinking means concentrating on one thing21 long enough to develop an idea about it . . . It’s only by concentrating,
sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of my brain come into play, that I arrive at an original idea.”
Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller, who said, “It’s easier to act your way33 into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.” Jacobs
What if I fail—how will I recover?
such as How would you like things to be different in your life?” Peavey believed that by employing the right kinds of questions—open, curious, slightly provocative at times, but never judgmental—one could have a meaningful
dialogue with people who are very different from you, culturally, politically, temperamentally. Such questions could slip under and around the barriers between people;
If we don’t agree on an answer yet, can we at least come to terms on a question? What
Why might they see the issue this way? Why do I see it differently? What assumptions are we each operating under? In this vein, one other question comes highly recommended52 from Michael Corning, a top engineer at Microsoft, who said he has relied on this in both his work and his life:
What are the odds I’m wrong? As Corning points out, just pausing every once in a while to ponder this question can provide a check on our natural tendency to be overly certain of our own views. Plus, Corning adds, it can help to avoid all manner of trouble around the home, such as lengthy arguments that begin with a false accusation about who moved the car keys.
What went well in the family this past week? What could we do better? What things will we commit to working on in the coming week? Updating
