The Answer to Everything
We think we need all the answers. That’s why you opened this, yes? I don’t know that we need to go in search of answers to all the troubles in the world. I think we need to go in search of the questions.
Haven’t you noticed that answers show up when you ask the right questions? And the best part is, you never get just one answer. If you ask good questions, you’ll have a multitude of answers and ideas to choose from.
If you are just looking for “The Answer” you may come up with one solution and fall in love with it because you found it. And you’ll stop thinking about it. Or worse, you will decide it’s the only answer and then start to sell everyone else on your brilliant solution. Maybe if you made it your job to just keep looking for the right questions, all the people around you would collectively come up with the best answer.
One of the current masters of creative thought is Roger Von Oech. His two groundbreaking books, A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants are wonderful journeys into the mind; primers on creativity and innovation. First published in 1986, they still make me think and make me laugh.
The lessons for problem solving are common sense: don’t automatically run with the first solution; recognize your blind spots; do some exploring; ask “What If” questions; ask the right questions.
Think about what’s bugging you today. How could you rephrase your questions to come up with better answers? Have you thought of all the questions? Are you so ensconced in your filters and your view of the world that the right questions are out of your reach?
Reasonable, rational thinking isn’t always the path to the best solution.
It wasn’t rational to think that sound waves could cook a potato. But there sits that microwave in your kitchen. It wasn’t rational to think voices could travel across little wires, and there’s your land line.
Who thought up microchips? Who decided someone could put a little piece of artwork in the corner of an envelope, shove that envelope into a blue box on the corner, and someone we haven’t met will pick it up and deliver it 2,000 miles away for 41 cents? How did most of what we take for granted show up on store shelves? Someone had an irrational thought! Someone asked an irrational question.
So how ’bout it? Take out a piece of paper and start writing irrational questions. Who knows, you may invent the next microwave. At the very least, you might solve that problem that’s keeping you awake nights.
Cheers,
Beth
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Beth Terry is a Professional Speaker, Author, and Trainer. For more information go to her website.
© 2008 Beth Terry Seminars, Inc. All International Rights Reserved.
