Step Three
Ask Great Questions

When we first started school with our bright yellow box of sixty-four crayons, we asked up to 65 questions per day. Most started with "Why... ?".

When we retire with our congratulatory fountain pen we're down to asking six questions per day. How sad, we've gone from being a curious question mark to graduating as a period.

Our laughter level has followed the same curve, dropping from 113 times per day as a child to eleven times as a serious adult. Not surprisingly, our creativity measured in terms of ability to generate a number of new ideas is at it's lowest at forty-four years old.

The below chart from the What a Great Idea! Workshop shows how our creativity has fallen from the 98th percentile to the 2nd percentile as we mature.

So how do we challenge the creeping wave of "terminal seriousness" that enters our life? By recognizing that right answers help us keep up with competition but to get ahead of competition we need the right questions.

 

1) So when you look at a new challenge ask:

"What's unique about this problem?"

Be curious first... then consider what the problem is similar to. Solutions that come from a uniqueness perspective can add lasting value where the easy-way-out, textbook solution can sometimes lead right back in.

 

2) Before starting a brainstorming session, ask your participants:

"What do we have to be more open-minded about
to solve this challenge?"

For many, they have to unlearn the old "True or False" rules of school:

• One right answer.
• The teacher's always right.
• The right answer's in the back of the book.

Was your dream in third grade to wake up in the morning and find a copy of the teacher's edition under your pillow? Today, the creative solutions you need aren't in the back of your policy manuals.

 

3) You need to challenge the rules of school by:

• Looking for several right answers.
• Encouraging the newest employees to participate.
• Challenging the sacred cows in our policy manuals.
• Passing notes, talking, sharing, and creating ideas that are at a higher level than any individual's idea.
• Writing on the walls with colored markers and leaving your thoughts up for a couple of days to look for emerging patterns.
• Thinking outside of the lines of our budgets and responsibilities.
• Allowing daydreaming during work hours.

Did your teachers ever scold you with, "The answer's not on the ceiling!" Well, the answer might not be on the ceiling, but the questions sure are.

Daydreaming is vital to our success because the future is the only area we can do something about. The past is finished and it's too late to change the present. Most importantly, impossible dreams don't know they're impossible.

 

4) Ask yourself:

"What percent of my workday
do I spend daydreaming?"

Challenge yourself to spend five minutes per day, thinking five years in the future and then telling five people. As a daily reminder, put a Post-it note on your monitor that simply says, "Take Five."

A written version of your company's daydreams is the vision statement. Unfortunately, the process of wordsmithing and three approval levels can turn your once dreams into a generic wall chart.

 

5) Take the pulse of your vision statement by asking:

"Is our vision statement alive?"

Has your vision statement moved off of the walls and into the corridors, seeking out every employee, every customer and every supplier you have?

Could another company put their name on your vision statement? If so, make your vision more specific by asking:

"What is the promise implied in our vision?"

For Volvo the promise is safety, for American Express it's security, for Disney it's family fun. Your promise is so much more important than your mission or your goal. Because achieving your vision is a promise kept.

 

Step Four: Think in Opposites