SEARCHING QUESTIONS - How To Discover Opportunities and Uncovering the Roots of Problems

Discovering Opportunities and Uncovering the Roots of Problems

By: Vadim Kotelnikov

Founder, Ten3 Business e-Coach – Inspiration and Innovation Unlimited!

"The first people had questions, and they were free. The second people had answers, and they became enslaved."

– The Earth Wisdom Teachings

10 Commandments of Innovation

Question everything: Ask a lot of searching questions... More

Ask Yourself

By James Allen, the Author of As a Man Thinketh

For true success ask yourself these four questions:

Why?
Why not?... More

5 Strategies for Creating a Culture of Questioning

Be a Model: Lead by example; constantly search for new opportunities; ask lots of “Why?” and “What if?” questions... More

How To Create Sustainable Profit Growth: 9 Questions To Answer

Creating a Sustainable Culture of Innovation

An 8-Step Process

Find the Seeds: Re-state your company’s biggest challenges in the form of questions beginning with the words “How can we?”... More

The Jazz of Innovation

11 Practice Tips

Challenge assumptions. Think outside-the-box. Ask searching questions "Why?" and "What If?" to identify hidden problems and opportunities. Keep eyes open for inspiration. Brainstorm every day... More

5 Strategic Questions

You Should Ask to Understand Where Your Business Is Going

By: Jack Welch

In the last three years, what have your competitors done?... More

Inspirational Leadership

10 Roles

Make relentless innovation a religion. Lead innovation, emphasize opportunities, not problems, and encourage innovative behavior. Establishing the culture of innovation requires a broad and sustained effort. Questions are critical to innovation, so start with creating a culture of questioning. Exploration of possibilities, discoveries, innovation, and progress start with challenging assumptions, asking searching “Why?” and “What if?” questions, and plying “What if” scenarios. Encourage your people to challenge assumptions, and run “The Best Question” contests. Reward both individual and collective contributions. Celebrate success... More

Searching for New Opportunities

"Why?" and "What If?" Questions

Why we always do things this way? What if we do it differently?
Why should we limit ourselves to getting better in what we are doing? What if we change things radically?... More

Why Should You Ask Searching Questions?

Searching questions can help you discover new opportunities, uncover the roots of a problem, and find creative solutions to it. Open your mind to what is possible.

Be Different and Make a Difference!

Asking searching questions starts with challenging assumptions. If you do not check assumptions you cannot be good at asking searching questions. Don't ask one or two questions and then rush straight towards a solution. With an incomplete understanding of the problem it is very easy to jump to wrong conclusions.

Ask open-ended questions that elicit a wide rage of answers:

'Why' questions to discover the roots of the problem
'How' questions to discover different routes to significant improvement.

DOs and DON'Ts of a Successful Innovator

By: Peter Drucker

DOs

Go out to look, to ask, to listen... More

Boosting Your Creativity

Creativity requires an inquisitive mind. Unless you ask lots of "Why?" and "What If"? questions, you won't generate creative insights.

"To avoid this most common of creative errors, be sure to peek under all carpets, including your own. Don't take anything for granted. Especially success. Try looking at the world through more inquisitive eyes; try getting ideas in motion; try asking the all-important: "Why?" See what happens!"²

Yin-Yang of Entrepreneurial Creativity

Case in Point Charles Schwab

Dave Pottruck, co-CEO of Charles Schwab, says that most of Schwab's huge innovations have come from asking customers questions:

What can we do better?
How can we make your life easier?
What new service or product would you like to see us offering?

Yin-Yang of Value Innovation

Triggering Great Ideas

A major stimulant to creative thinking for business problem solving is focused questions. A well worded question often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights. To trigger more and better ideas, you, first, must be be very clear about exactly what it is that you are trying to do.

Write it down and describe it as if it were already achieved. And, second, question your assumptions continually. What if there were a better way? Be willing to try something completely different.¹

8 Key Entrepreneurial Questions

Inspirational Business Plan: Successful Innovation