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Create a Culture of Questioning
Questions are critical to
innovation. Questions make you think about new
ways of doing things.
Exploration of possibilities, discoveries, innovation,
and progress start with challenging assumptions, asking searching
“Why?” and
“What if?” questions, and plying “What if” scenarios.
How can you create a culture of questioning? Lead by example – start with
yourself. Ask lots of questions. Don’t question competence – ask open-ended
searching questions instead.
Case
in Point
Google
"We run the company by
questions, not by answers," says Eric Schmidt1, the
CEO of
Google. "So in the
strategy process we've so far formulated 30
questions that we have to answer. I'll give you an example: we have a lot of
cash. What should we do with the cash? Another example of a question that we
are debating right now is: we have this amazing product called AdSense for
content, where we're monetizing the Web. If you're a publisher we run our
ads against your content. It's phenomenal. How do we make that product
produce better content, not just lots of content? An interesting question.
How we do make sure that in the area of video, that high-quality video is
also monetized? What are the next big breakthroughs in search? And the
competitive questions: What do we do about the various products Microsoft is
allegedly offering? You ask it as a question, rather than a pithy answer,
and that stimulates conversation. Out of the conversation comes
innovation.
Innovation is not something that I just wake up one day and say 'I want to
innovate.' I think you get a better
innovative culture if you ask it as a
question.“
Searching for New Opportunities
Examples of "Why?" and "What If?" Questions:
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