Train your question muscles

When Brian O´Kane and I wrote “Start Your Own Business,” we decided to write it as a workbook that asks the questions rather than trying to give the answers. In the case of a start-up, that is very difficult anyway, as everything is context and highly individual.

The Book of Beautiful Questions

Like Warren Berger, the author of “The Book of Beautiful Questions”, I also regard myself as what he calls a questionologist. Asking the questions that cut to the heart of a complex challenge or enable us to see an old problem in a new light. In a time of exponential change, it’s a twenty-first-century survival skill. Combined with humility as the new smart.

Questioning

Questioning is a starting point of innovation. Critical thinking is rooted in questioning. Decision-making demands questioning. Creativity depends on our ability and willingness to grapple with challenging questions that can fire the imagination. Leadership is about asking the ambitious, unexpected questions that no one else is asking. Neurological research shows that merely wondering about an interesting question activates regions of the brain linked to reward processing. Curiosity — the act of wondering — feels good in and of itself, and thus, questions beget more questions.

The five enemies