Innovatingviaquestioning

Inspire curiosity by listening to the old saying: there is no such thing as a stupid question, almost all serious digital professionals today understand the importance of asking the right question,

We live in the world full of pondering, oftentimes, a great question gives us hint to think broadly, deeply; some questions seem paradoxical, some questions are circular, some questions cannot be answered, some questions seem not questions, some questions can trigger more questions which are thought-provoking,,,,,,

All of us have some artistic/creative instinct while we also have scientific/logic skills. By nature, we are curious beings, and we have different lenses-the unique perspectives in the way we look at the world, understand surroundings, and make influences, starting with insightful questions to connect the minds and touch hearts…




Art = “Thinking” & Expression - the art of question is to draw insightful and creative thoughts and solutions: From impressionism to contemporary, art is an expressive version of human footprints. An Artist's mind is visualized, expressive and aesthetic beyond manipulating the languages, full of imagination. Like a piece of art, the great question is beautiful and insightful, open-ended, attracts the diversity of thoughts and meaningful arguments. We all desire to seek and participate in conversations, it's part of human nature. The art of question is to spark imagination, connect the dots with our own personal experience and appreciation, make us feel engaged in the knowledge exchange and enforce mutual understanding.

Not only great artists express the world, but they also change the world by not following, and if making sense, breaking the worldly rules, recovering and renewing nature's original colors and themes. The artistic expression is interpersonal and conceptual, and their communication style is more creative than descriptive. So their questions convey a soft touch to convey sense and sensitivity. The art of questioning is not for hunting answers, but to open another window to see around our world from different angles intimately. The art of question is much more about open communications that stimulate the creative sides of our brains, evoke a response to enlighten or illustrate a specific issue or topic. It is based on the art of thinking, perceiving, listening, the soft science of communication, it’s the attitude and trust.

Science = "What" & "How" - the science of questions is about fact-finding analysis, objective evaluation and comparison, the inferential and progressive pursuit of better solutions: If art is an innate process for inspirational creation, science is the methodical process of identifying logical reasons, experimental methods, stepwise procedures, concrete scenarios, and bringing up provable outcomes. The science of questioning is structural and robust in a way that helps us "dispassionately" examine alternatives, enforce logical reasoning, make objective evaluation and comparison, it's the systematic and progressive pursuit of better solutions based on human’s cognitive improvement.

What defines science from chance is the ability to repeat a process with the same resultant solution every time, through the application of known facts and statistics. Science is created whenever people start applying the scientific method of observing, creating hypotheses, and discover scientific formulas to prove it. The science of questions is to intentionally search for patterns, get quantified answers and qualified information to build persuasive solutions. All problems are contextual, if you do not understand their frame of reference, formulating the questions or understanding the context of the response becomes meaningless. If art inspires us, science calms us down. The science of questioning is to slow down our thinking process, recognize the complexity, refine “what,” and get to “know-how” step-wisely. Sometimes we even need to explore the “science of science,” take a transdisciplinary approach to questioning, informing, synthetic reasoning.

Philosophy = Why & abstract - philosophical questions provoke deep thinking about fundamental human issues - who are we really? All of us have ancestors, that’s why we all carry on some philosophical heritage from them regardless of whether you consciously know or not. Philosophy is the compass of human civilization, philosophical inquiries can allow us to see the cause and effect thoroughly, based on conceptual, futuristic, paradoxical, and “big picture” lenses. The philosophical thinking encourages us to ask big “WHY” questions, and helps us see the reasoning in action. And then, when we have seen the reasoning in action, we've got an example of what's philosophy: a problem, and a logical argumentation, the alternative solutions. Philosophy is really big and fundamental, it can talk about the status of other sciences; it involves examining basic concepts such as truth, existence, reality, causality, and freedom. Philosophy takes on problems of knowing and knowledge, but perhaps its greatest strength is its ability to "solve" problems elsewhere. So if philosophical questions can help to discover the real cause and even dissolve the problem, that is the discipline worth pursuing.

The world is a melting pot of languages, religions, races, genders, and the journey of human evolution has, but only one purpose, to make collective progress. Philosophy is always important to better understand evolution and harness its power to serve human purposes. Philosophy is the history of ideas and an ongoing inquiry into the nature of things based on abstract reasoning, to push human society forward. Questions are raised by philosophers and once they are able to find an answer, it’s a turnoff for them. They immediately declare it to be science. So take provocative question initiative through philosophical lenses - seeking mysteries and paradoxes that the questions for which there were no answers were the ones worth asking. Besides being a solutionist, philosophical thinkers are great learners with endless curiosity to keep exploring the breadth of knowledge and depth of insight until they discover our origin- who are we really, who are we going to be?

As the old saying states: there is no such thing as a stupid question, although almost all serious digital professionals today understand the importance of asking the right question, it takes both courage and humility for them to ask questions. And great leaders are the ones who have all the questions but not all the answers, in fact, their role is to facilitate great dialogues via continuously questioning and reasoning.

Posted in: Leading by Questioning