Quotes from Warren Berger

replacing, for example, We make the world a better place through robotics! with How might we make the world a better place through robotics?). By articulating the company mission as a question, it tells the outside world, "This is what we're striving for—we know we're not there yet, but we're on the journey." It acknowledges room for possibility, change, and adaptability.

incumbency has an interest in maintaining the status quo. To question well, you must have the ability to say, 'It doesn't have to be that way.

A journey of inquiry that (hopefully) culminates in change can be a long road, with pitfalls and detours and often nary an answer in sight. That's why it can be helpful to approach inquiry systematically, as a step-by-step progression. The best innovators are able to live with not having the answer right away because they're focused on just trying to get to the next question.

If we're born to inquire, then why must it be taught?

What might the potential for humans be if we really encouraged that spirit of questioning in children, instead of closing it down? I

As Winston Churchill once said, "The trick is to go from one failure65 to another, with no loss of enthusiasm.

Everything that's ever happened to you or occurred to you in your life informs every decision you make—and also influences what questions you decide to ask. So it can be useful to step back and inquire, Why did I come up with that question?" Burton adds, "Every time you come up with a question, you should be wondering, What are the underlying assumptions of that question? Is there a different question I should be asking?

These days it's easier and less expensive to just try out your ideas than to figure out if you should try them out.

What would happen if this happens?' I do that on my own—I do all of my exploring outside of school. Because in school it's not allowed and that just . . . really sucks."   If

If employees in a company are given more leeway to question, it means policies may be challenged. Established methods and practices might suddenly be looked at in a new light: Why are we doing it this way? Not everyone wants to have to continually defend proven methods.

Contextual inquiry is about asking questions up close and in context, relying on observation, listening, and empathy to guide us toward a more intelligent, and therefore more effective, question.

One of the most important things questioning does is to enable people to think and act in the face of uncertainty. As Steve Quatrano of the Right Question Institute puts it, forming questions helps us "to organize our thinking around18 what we don't know.

As for the answer, it belongs to whoever gets to it first. Holding back ideas—hoarding your beautiful questions—is usually pointless because it's hard to make headway on something hidden in a drawer. Better to bring a question out into the light of day and trust that, with help from others, you'll get something out of it—a solution, a learning experience, an insight, a fresh perspective, a sense of purpose—that will be yours.

When companies are facing disruptive change (and these days, what company isn't?), old habits and traditions can sometimes get in the way of progress. One of the things hypothetical What If questioning can do is remove those constraints, if only briefly, to allow for more fresh thinking.

The What If stage is the blue-sky moment of questioning, when anything is possible. Those possibilities may not survive the more practical How stage; but it's critical to innovation that there be a time for wild, improbable ideas to surface and to inspire.

After observing about a hundred Q-storm sessions around the world, Gregersen has noted some patterns. "At around twenty-five questions, the group may stall briefly and say, 'That's enough questions.' But if you push on beyond that point, some of the best questions come as you get to fifty or even seventy-five.

one of the big problems with brainstorming in general: Many ideas are tossed out, but the groups often don't know how to winnow down to the best ideas. It can be easier to winnow down questions because the best questions are magnetic—they intrigue people, make them want to work more on those. RQI recommends coming out of a session with three great questions that you want to explore further.

Libraries are being remade as interesting maker spaces, with the librarian playing more of the role of the teacher of inquiry-based learning

As I was examining the ways some of today's cutting-edge companies are trying to reinvent brainstorming, an interesting trend surfaced: a specific form of questioning using three words—How might we?

You don't learn unless you question.

Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air, and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.

If you dream of something worth doing and then simply go to work on it . . . if you think of, detail by detail, what you have to do next, it is a wonderful dream even if the end is a long way off, for there are about five thousand steps to be taken before we realize it; and start making the first ten, and stay making twenty after, it is amazing how quickly you get through those five thousand steps.

The main premise of appreciative inquiry is that positive questions, focusing on strengths and assets, tend to yield more effective results than negative questions focusing on problems or deficits.

Don't just teach your children to read. Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything." After