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August 30 - September 22, 2020
Why are we doing this particular thing in this particular way?
three-part Why–What If–How model for forming and tackling big, beautiful questions.
The best innovators are able to live with not having the answer right away because they’re focused on just trying to get to the next question.
A beautiful question is an ambitious yet actionable question that can begin to shift the way we perceive or think about something—and that might serve as a catalyst to bring about change.
if you never actually do anything about a problem yourself, then you’re not really questioning—you’re complaining.
divergent thinking—the mental process of trying to come up with alternative ideas. Heilman
How can you know whether retraining is worthwhile, or which kinds of training, without first spending time on questions such as: • How is my field/industry changing? • What trends are having the most impact on my field, and how is that likely to play out over the next few years? • Which of my existing skills are most useful and adaptable in this new environment—and what new ones do I need to add? • Should I diversify more—or focus on specializing in one area? • Should I be thinking more in terms of finding a job—or creating one?
Why does a particular situation exist? • Why does it present a problem or create a need or opportunity, and for whom? • Why has no one addressed this need or solved this problem before? • Why do you personally (or your company, or organization) want to invest more time thinking about, and formulating questions around, this problem?
(Basic formula: Q (questioning) + A (action) = I (innovation). On the other hand, Q – A = P (philosophy).
Person encounters a situation that is less than ideal; asks Why. • Person begins to come up with ideas for possible improvements/solutions—with such ideas usually surfacing in the form of What If possibilities. • Person takes one of those possibilities and tries to implement it or make it real; this mostly involves figuring out How.
“My concern is with how students become critical thinkers and problem solvers, which is what a democratic society needs.”
Five learning skills, or “habits of mind,” were at the core of her school, and each was matched up with a corresponding question: Evidence: How do we know what’s true or false? What evidence counts? Viewpoint: How might this look if we stepped into other shoes, or looked at it from a different direction? Connection: Is there a pattern? Have we seen something like this before? Conjecture: What if it were different? Relevance: Why does this matter?
that students must develop the “habit” of learning and questioning, that knowledge cannot be force-fed to them.
“Fear is the enemy of curiosity.
If not now, then when? If not me, then who?”)
While it’s understood that creativity sometimes requires solitude (“Be alone, that is when ideas are born,” Nikola Tesla said), we also know that it flourishes when diverse ideas and thoughts are exchanged.
might we? It’s a simple25 way of ensuring that would-be innovators are asking the right questions and using the best wording.
By substituting the word might, he says, “You’re able to defer judgment, which helps people to create options more freely and opens up more possibilities.”
one of the most important things a leader can do is project a clear and distinctive point of view that others can follow. But
Whether or not the mission statement is phrased as a question, it should be subject to constant questioning: Does it still make sense today? Are we, as a company, still living up to it (if we ever did)? Is the mission growing and pulling us forward? And lastly, Are we all on this mission together?
“Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air, and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.”
So why then, do we tend to avoid taking the time to ask important and fundamental questions about our lives? As we rush around, from task to task and from one distraction to the next, is it possible that “questioning” itself is the predator we’re trying to escape?
Simply by asking, at the end of each day, What am I grateful for? and writing down the answers in a “gratitude journal,” people tend to be “happier, more optimistic, more successful, more likely to achieve their goals,” according to Ben-Shahar.
“gratitude is a shortcut to happiness.”
key findings is that people who value and appreciate the basics—family and friends, a sense of belonging to a community, the simple pleasure that comes with engaging in a hobby or learning something new—tend to be a lot happier.
“Failure is, in a sense, the highway42 to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true.” Those
Why might they see the issue this way? Why do I see it differently? What assumptions are we each operating under?
