As a facilitator and researcher, I love questions. I love asking questions to others and appreciate when others ask questions of me. Often the right question can be the trigger to shift energy in a room: a trail that may be spiraling down can quickly be turned constructively into a new and fresh direction. Questions are powerful.
Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question has rested on my nightstand for a few months now, as I’ve slowly savored and tried to implement its ideas. My main take away is the tactic of engaging the world around me in three main question sets: why, what if, and how.
By first raising what may seem obvious, the “why,” we can better understand the background thinking or rationale of a system or process. Sometimes the simple question, “Why?” can make plain the barrier, or open thought to a new way.
“What if…?” takes us into creative spaces. This question is the “anything goes” of questioning, eliciting ideas from all spaces in the brain that may otherwise be kept behind closed doors. And sometimes that’s half the fun—uncovering what may otherwise be kept unseen or unexplored.
The final question of the three, “How,” brings us back to earth and begins the practical application of our “what if” ideas. This is the space to develop, building on our creativity through measurable process and progress. The “how” gives legs to creativity.
I’ve applied this question set—why, what if, and how—to my personal life, as well as to strategy sessions in my consulting efforts. In a recent workshop, a team of Kenyans and Tanzanians working in private sector health branched off into pairs to develop ways of infusing gender transformative approaches into current program activities. The result? Unexpected and creative action steps for the next year’s workplan. Creativity took flight through the power of questions.
If you’d like more, I’d encourage you to read A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger, or listen to his interview with the Creative Confidence Podcast from March 5, 2019 titled “Tapping into the Power of Questions.”