Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change

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CREATIVITY QUESTIONS

Creativity questions encourage people to think about things that go beyond the familiar. They encourage originality and risk-taking. They ask people to consider new ideas and imagine new scenarios. They put us in the future tense. They push boundaries. Creativity questions ask people to imagine ambitiously and think independently.

The Dream: What would you change? What if there were no limits? What is your dream?

These are opening questions that grant license and unleash the imagination. You are asking people to put convention to the side, to set their sights high and try something new or experiment. These questions inspire people to think big, over the horizon to imagine new approaches, new definitions. They are the questions that frame the challenge, set the bar, and loosen the rules.

The Frame: What’s the next Big Thing? How can we eliminate poverty? What will it take to beat cancer? What’s the unexpected twist in the story? Frame your question to inspire and to invoke the future. Ask people to imagine a different and better place. Make the questions inspirational, to shift our gaze from the weeds to the sky.

Role-Playing: What if you were CEO? What would you do? What if you were the director making the movie? What would Jeff Bezos think about this situation? Ask your collaborators to try on another pair of shoes—the shoes of the decision maker. Ask them to assume responsibility. Your question puts them in another place. Now they are invested, thinking in a different context and imagining at another level.

Your Sunglasses: When should you take them off? You can direct the action and tell people precisely when to take off their sunglasses or you can ask people to invest themselves in the decision and think about what they are doing, why and to what effect? Invite them to be part of the creative process instead of just handing them a script. These questions challenge people to take ownership of the script and the creative process.

Time Travel: You succeeded. You’re in the future. What are you doing? What’s it like? What do you see? Skip past the particulars, the details, and the distractions. Forget the fear and the can’t-do white noise. Pretend money doesn’t exist. Ask people to boldly go where no one has gone before: the future. Ask them to look around and try it on. Then look in the rearview mirror to see how you got there and what it took.

The Superhero: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? That’s Gavin Newsom’s question. Ask it to help people embrace risk and understand that fear of failure should not stand in the way of brainstorming, big ideas, and worthy goals.

Listen: Be alert to the brave and the different, and for ideas that spark imagination and enthusiasm. Listen eagerly for originality and boldness. If you hear a germ of an idea, fascinating but not fully developed, draw it out with a series of questions that nurture the thought process.

Try: Run the “future test” with a roomful of colleagues, friends, or family. It is five years from now. We achieved our goal. What does that look like? What are we doing? What are we proud of? The questions are about the future but asked and answered in the present tense. The future is now. Your time machine worked.