Discovery occurs by asking the right question

Discovery occurs by asking the right question

Jonas Salk was a young doctor when in 1955 he announced his discovery of a vaccine that could prevent polio. He was recognized with a Presidential Medal of Freedom. He led scientists in studies of cancer, heredity, the brain, the immune system and AIDS at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.?

Salk said, “[Solutions] come through asking the right question, because the answer pre-exists. It’s the question that we have to define and discover”.?We don’t discover answers to problems, we reveal them by discovering the right questions to ask.

Put another way, remember a past issue, problem, or challenge you have had.?Think about the eventual solution.?Your solution may have been a series of actions you took, research you did, people you talked with, experiments conducted, others you enlisted to help, etc.??Perhaps hundreds of little steps that ultimately resulted in a solution, including missteps until you found the right path.??Pretend now that you went back in time.?You would know that a solution exists because you found it once before and you would know the questions to ask to get there.?

Now think of a problem or issue you’re dealing with today.??The solution to this current problem exists.?You just have to find the right steps to get there.?You have to reveal the solution by asking the right questions that will put you and others on the path to the solution.?

The cure for cancer surely exists.?We need to discover and ask the right questions to find the path to get there.

The Takeaway: The key to problem solving is to ask the right questions that will reveal a path to the solution.?Instead of asking “what is the solution here”, one might ask, “what questions should we be asking that will help us reveal the solution that already exists”.??We find the solution by discovering the questions that reveal it.

Mike Kallet; CEO Headscratchers

#criticalthinking #problemsolving #decisionmaking

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Mike Kallet, CEO and Principal - Headscratchers LLC Author of Think Smarter - Critical Thinking to Improve Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills.?

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