Among the most buzzed-about books on Blinkist’s social media pages in 2017 was A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. Written by journalist Warren Berger, this best-seller illustrates the importance of asking the right questions in order to embark on personal journeys of creativity and success. Based on cutting-edge research, and highlighting actual examples from today’s business world, A More Beautiful Question outlines a path to living a more meaningful life by demonstrating how curiosity can lead to more purposeful questions. So, if you’d like to become a more innovative thinker in 2018, or if you dream of creating a new way to earn a living on your own, here’s a quick look at what A More Beautiful Question has to offer you.
As children, we all ask endles questions in our quest for knowledge. Yet once we reach school, our innate inquisitiveness is diminished by the need for discipline and memorizing information in order to pass an array of tests. Rote memorization can go a long way toward graduating. However, losing our passion for the Whys and What ifs often leaves us short. But, by rekindling the ability to ask the right questions, we can uncover new opportunities and discover a power that transforms our lives both personally and professionally.
Why Ask Questions? By the time many people reach the working world or college, they’ve all but lost the ability to ask effective questions—at a time when they are more important than ever. These environments expose the right question’s greatest utility. Asking questions forces us to address gaps in our knowledge or methods. By seeking answers, we ignite our creativity and stimulate new ideas. The quests to realize these budding concepts have led to many of history’s and the modern era’s greatest innovations.
Which Questions Should You Ask?
Start by returning to a childlike mindset. Ask “Why?” whenever possible. It serves as a foundation for your ability to reach the root of complex issues and the limits of our understanding. By adding “Why not” questions, you can begin to challenge basic assumptions about how things are done, or how they should be. From there, questions starting with “Why not?” begin to set you on the path of solving the problem. “What if?” questions invite solutions that stand outside standard paradigms. Or, they create opportunities to synthesize old ideas into new potential solutions. Answers to a “What if?” can lead to dead-ends, but they can also provide the innovative thinking you need for success. Once you have identified the idea you wish to pursue, that is the time to put the gears in motion, by asking “How?” This foursome— “Why?,” “Why Not?,” “What if?,” and “How?” —are what Berger calls the four beautiful questions.
Beauty in Practice
Given the business environment today, asking the right questions is more crucial than ever. Always having to come up with the right answer encourages a reactive attitude toward changes. By holding proactive question-storming sessions, companies can stay agile and ahead of the competition. Raising questions, rather than having to provide answers like in a typical brainstorming meeting, also fosters more and better dialogue among team members. Beautiful questions aren’t only useful in business. By making such inquiries into our own lives, we can become happier, more fulfilled, and more successful on a day-to-day basis. It’s easy to lose sight of our reason for pursuing a certain goal. But by continually asking ourselves why we embarked upon a particular journey, we can assign an honest purpose to our actions and identify the true meaning of our lives. This prevents us from merely following others for the sake of similarity. Asking beautiful questions is the best way to get answers in life, because only by positing the right queries are we able to identify actual problems and uncover successful solutions. Learn more about transforming intangible solutions into observable realities by diving into the blinks for A More Beautiful Question today.