Forget the Right Answers. Do You Have the Right Questions?

It’s easy to get answers. Anybody can find them. Answers are a cryptocoin a quadrillion. Back in the old days, they were easy to find. All people had to do was type a query in Google. In these modern days, you can shout at Alexa, Siri, Cortana or some other cutely named digital voice assistant for a quick reply about the weather, stock reports, or who won the Oscars.

Answers are abundant. Data is everywhere. The internet is embedded in everything (or soon will be). But the fact remains that computers are stupid. They can only give answers. And when was the last time you heard a computer ask a truly great question?

Computers aren’t alone in their stupidity. People are stupid too. Especially if you went to school in the U.S. The first thing you probably learned was only dumb kids ask questions. The smart kids, on the other hand, listened and only answered questions they knew the answer to. And by the time you graduated as a “smart person,” you learned it was better not to answer questions at all and just be told the answer.

But your education about questions won’t help you in today’s ever-changing, disrupted world. What made you “smart” in high school (and college, sadly) makes you dumb in business. And all the books on how to innovate, get rich, and be successful won’t help you if you don’t learn how to ask better questions.

The best companies ask good questions

In A More Beautiful Question, Warren Berger points out the top performing companies and leaders are the ones that ask better questions. Apple and Steve Jobs are a well-known success story, built from questioning the norm. Jobs was always asking how to make things simple from computing to music to phones, resulting in an intuitive interface on the Apple computer, iPod, and iPhone.

Netflix is a more recent example. They asked how could we make renting movies easier? Their answer was renting DVDs through the mail. Then the answer became streaming content straight to your mobile device.

That’s the thing about good questions. They keep yielding good answers.

The best leaders listen — and ask questions

Did you ever want to be a great leader? Then here’s a tip. Don’t stand in front of the room barking orders and giving all the answers.

Two of the most essential characteristics of successful leaders are listening and asking the hard questions, according to Liz Wiseman author of the bestselling book Multipliers. Wiseman noted the best leaders sit quietly in the back of the room, listen to everyone, and then ask hard questions to take people deeper into a problem. Hard questions are the kind of questions that can’t be based on current knowledge and that force the organization to learn.

Here are some other ways questions can better your life.

Questions help you overcome rejection

Have you heard of Jia Jiang, rejection expert? Jiang became famous for his experiment, 100 Days of Rejection, where he found new and more interesting ways to get rejected—in order to overcome rejection. You can hear his inspiring story in one of the most popular TED talks of 2017 or read about it in his book Rejection Proof.

One of his most important findings, however, was the best way to deal with rejection — ask questions. He suggested, “Ask Why Before Goodbye.”

When you are turned down for a job, interview, project, idea, favor, etc., don’t walk away with your head down, feeling bad. Instead, ask the rejector Why? You’ll learn the rejection has nothing to do with you personally and often get insights that will help you be more successful the next time you ask for something.

Questions help you bounce back from failure

Silicon Valley and the startup culture have continually tried to sell us on the idea that failure is great. Successful entrepreneurs talk about “failing fast” and “embracing failure” as the key to their success. But as Berger points out in his book, failure is painful. And not everyone overcomes it.

However, failure can be a good teacher — but only if you ask the right questions. When you fail, Berger suggests you ask, “What did I do right?” and “Am I failing differently each time?”

Don’t always obsess over what you did wrong. Often you did things well, so you want to keep those aspects when you try again. Also, when you try again and don’t succeed, you want to be failing differently. Failing differently means there is something new to learn about why you were not successful.

Questions improve innovation and creativity

Finally, if you want to be more innovative and creative in life, you need to be curious and ask better questions. Natalie Nixon, author of Strategic Design Thinking, suggests people should follow the question pattern of Why, What If, and How, outlined in Berger’s book to stimulate creativity.

Nixon explains that Why is about questioning the way things are done —as in “Why is going fast business as usual?” What If is about proposing different ways to approach problems — as in “What if we tried going slow instead of fast?” And How is about creating a process based on the new approach. That is, “How do we go about proceeding slower?”

So if you feel you are stuck in a quandary, don’t go looking for better answers. Instead, go looking for better questions. Better questions will lead you to investigate your situation more deeply, help you lead better, overcome failure and rejection, and produce a rich vein of more creative solutions.

Kyle Crocco is known widely as the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau and the lead singer of Duh Professors. He regularly publishes on Medium, Business 2 Community, and Born 2 Invest.