The key to a breakthrough and a killer idea to start that business you have thinking about lately is not just solving your own ideas. Some of the most creative and innovative companies are better at asking some of the best questions to spark creativity and allow people to take things a step further to find amazing ideas to solve everyday problems. They are insanely good at asking questions.
Don’t ask a question. Ask a more beautiful one
Brilliant ideas can come out of a more better question. Why can’t everyone accept credit cards? Innovation: Square. How do I find what I want quicker and better? Innovation: Google. How do I send short messages online? Innovation: Twitter. The list of innovative and disruptive ideas and businesses could go on.
In one of his well quoted and popular quotes, Einstein reckoned that if he had an hour to solve a problem, he would spend the first fifty-five minutes making sure he was answering the right question. Are you asking the a more better question to find the answers to your problems?
The answer you seek is in the right questions you are not asking.
In the book, A More Beautiful Question Warren Berger stresses the importance of asking thoughtful, ambitious “beautiful questions” to spark breakthrough ideas. He shares how questioning can help us solve problems and work through difficult challenges in our daily lives. If you are still stuck in the process of generating ideas or refining your recent idea, try asking a more better and beautiful question that can lead to a lot more leading questions.
Why have you stopped questioning?
We all tend to ask questions instinctively and freely when are kids. It’s probably an accepted part of children’s lives. But unfortunately as we grow, that curiosity is not translated into our adult and career lives. Why do some people keep questioning, while others stop? Is it genetic? Are we influenced by our educational system or our immediate environment?
Do schools positively or negatively impact our ability to maintain our curiosity instinct? Are parents to blame? Are people who question things more successful than those who don’t? Can you question your way to a successful life? There are more beautiful questions than answers. The question you ask determines the answers you receive.
Your boss want answers, not questions. You probably won’t survive in your current job if you start asking too many questions instead of providing the answers you are paid to give. Your business should encourage the culture of inquiry where people feel they can ask questions without necessarily knowing the answers. There is so much focus on solutions that we forget to understand that innovation and every product humans use probably are answers to questions inventors and entrepreneurs kept asking themselves until they found answers for them.
Stay on the path of inquiry for better answers.
Another equally better approach is by asking the right questions. There is so such data and information out there to help you research about your brilliant idea. Unfortunately if you are asking the wrong questions. If you want a better approach to gathering the right information about your idea and validating that idea, you should be focusing on getting to the path of inquiry.
Questions that can help you validate your idea (before you waste time and resources on it) should challenge your basic assumptions. They should make you want to dig deeper to find more answers to questions others may ask but you are likely to ignore.
Start answering basic questions like; Why am I doing this? Will I even use this product? Are people looking for answers to this problem? or better still, how many people are actually looking for solutions to this problem?
The idea you seek is in those leading questions you are not considering
Interesting ideas and more answers will definitely come out of leading questions. Get others involved if you have to. Get others to give you a different perspective about it and you will be shocked at the questions they could ask that can get you thinking. Great questions take sometime to completely answer when it comes to ideas.
Questioning is like breathing—it’s something that seems so basic, so instinctive, that we take it for granted. But there’s a lot we can all learn about how to question, and really do it well to get the answers we seek.
There are no right answers when you are trying to validate ideas. Don’t just focus on questions that will validate your own assumptions. A better approach is to get those who will finally be using it to ask you some of the questions.
Whatever you do, stay on the path of inquiry for a more compelling answer.