This document discusses the importance and power of questioning. It argues that beautiful, ambitious questions can shift perceptions and catalyze change. Good questions inspire further inquiry and layers of answers. The value is in what can be done with knowledge gained from questioning. Questioning skills like asking "why" and "what if" can help solve problems and drive innovation. The document provides a model of innovative questioning with stages of why, what if, and how. It also discusses tips for generating questions, collaborating with diverse others, testing ideas quickly, and developing a culture of inquiry.

1. A More Beautiful
Question
Always the beautiful answer
Who asks a more beautiful question
Warren Berger

2. 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.

3. Questions that Google cannot easily anticipate
and properly answer for you –questions that
require different kind of search. What is the
fresh idea that will help my business stand out?
These are individualized, challenging, and
potentially game-changing questions

4. Key to scientific discovery is the willingness of
scientists to embrace ignorance- and to use
questions as a means to navigating through it
to new discoveries. One good question can give
rise to several layers of answers, can inspire.

5. In the current environment, questions are
rising in value while answers are declining.
The value of explicit information is dropping.
The real value is in “what you can do with the
knowledge, in pursuit of a query”.

6. Just asking Why without taking any action may
be a source of stimulating thought or
conversation, but it is not likely to produce
change.
Q (questioning) + A (Action) = I (Innovation)
Q (questioning) - A (Action) = P (Philosophy)

7. A child asks about 40,000 questions between
the age of 2 to 5. As they begin grade school,
the questioning by kids really starts to
disappear but reading and writing skill goes up.

8. If we’re born to inquire, then why it must be
taught?
We can develop the questioning skill now, in
our own spaces by focusing, in particular, on
how fundamental Why, What If, and How
questions to solve problems and create change.

9. The Why, What If, and How Model of
Innovative Questioning.
Each stage of problem solving process has
distinct challenges and issues- requiring
different mind set, along with different types of
questions. Why stage is about seeing and
understanding. What If about imagining and
How is about doing.

10. To consider new ideas and possibilities- it
helps if we can let go of what we know,
just temporarily. You have to be
adventurous & humble enough to enter
the “know nothing” zone of a constant
questioner.

11. Questioning one’s own question might seem
like a circular exercise but leads to more
insightful and informed questions. The five
whys methodology i.e. asking why five times in
succession developed by Toyota is a mean of
getting to the root of problems.

12. If the word Why has a penetrative power,
enabling the questioner to get past
assumptions, the word What If have a more
expansive effect. The What If stage is the blue-
sky moment of questioning, when anything is
possible and is critical to innovation.

13. Where do those wild. Speculative ideas come
from ?
Coming up with original ideas or insights- often
involves the ability to combine ideas and
influence, that might not ordinarily go together.
It’s a mix-and-match process at the root of
creativity and innovation.

14. To come up with fresh ideas, we don’t have to
invent from scratch; we can draw upon what
already exists and use that as raw material. The
key may lie in connecting those bits and pieces
in a clever, unusual, and useful way, resulting in
smart combination

15. To come up with fresh insights and What If
possibilities that can lead to breakthroughs, it
is important to spend time with challenging
questions instead of trying to answer them
right away.

16. The How stage of questioning is where rubber
meets the road. It’s the point at which things
come together and then, more often than not ,
fall apart, repeatedly. To act on an idea, you
need to narrow possibilities and converge.

17. In committing to an idea, it becomes critical to
find a way to share it in order to get feedback.
Even just by telling other people about a
question you’re working on, you’ve begun to
form a commitment

18. The rapid test-and-learn approach, i.e. to create
something new and innovative- one must find
ways to constantly experiment and quickly put
new ideas out into the world for public
consumption in order to learn what works and
what doesn’t.

19. Drawing on other people’s experience and
resources is often better than doing it alone.
As you look for potential collaborators, aim for
people with background, cultural experiences
and skill sets that differ from your own:
Diversity fuels Creativity

20. Why are we in business(and by the way –what
business are we really in)?
What if we could become a cause and not just a
company?
How can we make a better experiment?
How might we create a culture of inquiry?

21. Company leaders are increasingly realizing that
if they’re only asking the small questions, it’s
not going to advance their agenda, their
position, or brands. In order to innovate now,
they have to ask more expansive question.

22. The most important questions companies
should ask regularly is What should we stop
doing? Otherwise companies resources are
sucked up doing what’s no longer needed and
taking those resources away from what should
be a top priority.

23. Question-storming sessions provides sense
of direction and momentum. Generate at
least 50 questions about the problem that’s
being stormed. Some of the best question
comes as you get to 50.

24. Learning the art of questioning is more about
going out into the world and getting better at
observing and listening. Contextual inquiry may
be the most important questioning skill one
can pick up.

25. Why are you evading inquiry?
- Questioning is seen as counterproductive. It’s the
answer that most people focuses on.
- The right time to ask fundamental questions never
seems to present itself: either it’s too soon or too
late.
- What if we find we have no good answers to the
important questions we raise?

26. Thinking means concentrating on one
thing long enough to develop an idea
about it…It’s only by concentrating,
sticking to the question, being patient,
that one arrive at an original idea.

27. 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.
The question is :
What would you attempt to do if you
knew you could not fail?