Asking the right question, the art behind creative thinking

It’s easy to think that creativity is about finding the right answer. We look for solutions, we analyze data, we test and improve. But behind every brilliant idea there is often something much simpler: a good question. In fact, the most crucial steps in human development often began not with a solution, but with someone who dared to ask a new kind of question.

However, we are rarely trained to ask questions. We are schooled to answer. We are rewarded for being right, not for wondering. That’s why many creative processes end up astray before they even begin. They seek the answer to a poorly formulated question.

42 and the mystery of the question

In Douglas Adams’ classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a supercomputer, Earth, is built to calculate the answer to the biggest question of all: what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything. After millions of years, humanity gets its answer: 42. In this way, it turns out that we do not know the meaning of the answer, 42, because it was the question that was wrongly asked and that we do not know what question we should have asked to get a meaningful answer.

It is a humorous but also deeply philosophical point. The answer, no matter how elegant or precise it is, is worthless if the right question has not been asked. Many of our modern challenges work in the same way. We optimize, improve and analyze, but rarely do we stop and ask ourselves: have we asked the right question?

The question that drives the solution

Imagine that your car will not start one morning. You are going to work and time is short. In your head you immediately start looking for solutions. How can I fix my car? Who can I call? Is there a bus?

But there are also other possible questions. What can I do instead of going to work? Do I really need to be there today? Can I work from home? Or perhaps, more existentially, what am I really trying to achieve by going to work?

All of these questions lead to different types of answers. Some are about repair, others about adaptation, some about transformation. They simply define the universe of possibilities you open up.

We rarely see it, but each question acts like a map. It points out which paths we can take and which we don’t even consider.

Generating questions before answers

When we talk about creativity, we almost always talk about generating ideas. We brainstorm solutions, design prototypes, test hypotheses. But if the question is poorly formulated, the whole process risks becoming irrelevant.

A simple but powerful tool is therefore to start a creative process with generating questions. Questions like “what questions can I ask?” open up a whole new perspective.

For example, if you want to improve your business, you can start by writing down different types of questions: How can we be more efficient? How can we be more sustainable? How can we become more fun to work on? How can we become completely different from today?

Each question leads to completely different ideas. The first leads to efficiency, the second to long-term sustainability, the third to culture and the fourth to innovation.

Creativity therefore does not begin with the answer, but with the choice of question.

Questions that open and questions that close

One of the biggest pitfalls in problem solving is that we ask closed questions. They lead to yes or no answers, or to us simply confirming what we already know.

Open questions, on the other hand, those that start with how, why or what would happen if, force us to think beyond the obvious. When we ask “how can we sell more?” we assume that we will sell. But the question “what would happen if we stopped selling?” can lead to completely new business models.

This is how business creativity arises. When free newspapers came along, the question was not “how do we sell more newspapers?” but “what happens if we don’t charge for them?” When streaming services like Spotify and Netflix emerged, the question wasn’t “how do we sell more records or DVDs?” but “how can people access content without owning it?”

Asking the right question changes the entire playing field.

The ecology of questions

You can think of questions as an ecosystem. At the beginning of a process, wild, unexpected, and exploratory questions are needed. They open the mind, create movement, and generate energy. Later, more narrow questions are needed that help us focus and choose.

If we jump straight to the narrow questions, we stifle creativity. If we never narrow the questions, we become paralyzed. A skilled leader or facilitator therefore knows when it’s time to broaden and when it’s time to focus.

Examples with cities and sustainability

Think about how cities are trying to become more sustainable. Many ask the question “how can we reduce emissions?” and then focus on technology, transportation, and energy. But what if we instead asked, “How can people live happier lives with less resource use?”

The latter question opens up entirely new avenues: sharing economies, urban farming, walkable areas, community, and culture. Same goal, but a completely different starting point.

The question defines the world we are trying to create.

The method: Explore questions as a creative strategy

To do this practically, you can work in three steps.

  1. Start by exploring the situation without looking for solutions. What is really happening? What are we trying to achieve?
  2. Generate questions instead of answers. Let the participants come up with as many different questions as possible, even strange, absurd or philosophical ones. Often the most interesting perspectives are hidden in what initially sounds crazy.
  3. Select a few questions that feel most meaningful and use them as a starting point for the next step of idea generation.

In this way, you build solutions on a more conscious and creative battery of questions.

The question as a creative tool

Creativity is not just about finding the answer that no one else has thought of. It is about asking the question that no one else has asked.

In a world where AI can generate answers faster than any human ever can, the ability to formulate questions becomes even more important. Human creativity moves from delivering answers to discovering what is actually worth asking.

Just like in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it’s not the answer 42 that is the riddle. It’s the question. And perhaps it is precisely in the pursuit of the right question that we find the most meaningful answers, both in our lives and in the world around us.

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