Catalysing innovation with questions

Let me start with a question: what do #Cirque du Soleil, #Charles Schwab, #Procter and Gamble, #Patagonia and #Salesforce.com all have in common? The answer: all are companies run, either currently or until very recently, by leaders who place an enormous amount of value on the ability to ask great questions. 

In this episode, we are joined by Hal Gregersen, author of The Innovator’s DNA, to discuss his latest book, Questions Are The Answer. Hal is a Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Innovation and the Executive Director of the Leadership Center at MIT, and has previously taught at Dartmouth College, The World Economic Forum, and the London Business School.

For me, it is impossible to over-estimate the impact of a “catalytic question”, which is Hal's term for a powerful question, or as Tony Robbins calls it, your primary question. And in our conversation we discuss examples where people have built brands, and even businesses, on the back of a single question. We talk about why asking these kinds of questions is so difficult to do, what these questions look and sound like, and how you as a leader can create the conditions for such questions to surface in your business and your life. We also touch on how you can exercise your questioning muscle, as well as be sure that you listen deeply to the answers you receive.  

Tune in and enjoy the interview HERE!

What Was Covered

• Why Hal believes most CEOs have trouble asking questions and how to pivot from answer-centric to question-led leadership
• How to be a better leader by asking the ‘different, better question’ and using the ‘power of the pause’
• How Hal’s question-first process of reframing of challenges can help us discover the winning solution

Key Takeaways and Learnings

• Associational thinking: how observing, networking, and experimenting helps the world’s top leaders find novel solutions nobody has thought of before
• Catalytic questions: why challenging our false assumptions of the world forces us to create new beliefs and act on our questions
• Question bursts: why receiving no answers to our questions can help us to innovatively solve problems

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Get in touch with Hal via email, Twitter or LinkedIn
• Hal’s website
• The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, a book by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton M. Christensen
• Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life, a book by Hal Gregersen
• MIT Leadership Center, website
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a book by Douglas Adams
• Marc Benioff, Chairman & Co-CEO of Salesforce
• Principles: Life and Work, a book by Ray Dalio
• The Seat of the Soul, a book by Gary Zukav
• Player Piano: A Novel, a book by Kurt Vonnegut
• Brief Answers to the Big Questions, a book by Stephen Hawking
• Melinda Gates, co-chair and trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Tony Robbins, website
• Sam Abell, National Geographic photographer
• Innovaton Ecosystem Episode 085 – Fearless Outperformance: Creating Conditions for the Very Best Teams to Excel with Amy Edmondson

Listen to the episode and get the full interview transcript HERE!