It is time to change the way we make questions.

Even before the Pandemic, I had the insight that to evolve with a new generation that is digital native, we would need to change the questions for about 99% of the situations that we see in our day-to-day lives. That will impact everything that helps us build our social interactions as a whole; personal growth, professional persona, consumer profile, patient profile.

In the past we would say to teenagers going out on a date: Where are you going? Think, the reason for asking that question was: let me know where you'll be so that I can protect you.

Now, your teenagers can be at home, interacting with threats that you'd never admit possible in your own house.

We'd say: well, you have two days to work on this project for the US region. And all of a sudden, we need to work with new challenges that will need to be done and distributed concomitantly to everywhere in the world, in the same two days—addressing different cultures, who experience the same problem in a very broad manner.

But that was easy to envision ultimately because having a Millennial Mind meant considering multicultural approaches, even a super culture approach to problem-solving, where time and space were not pre-determined.

The COVID-19 Pandemic reinforced that our questions need to be changed, and we all must learn how to live and survive the Chaos. Not even the most amazing Fortune Teller could predict the Pandemics. Experienced Politics and their entire staff could not also accept the situation of the pandemic when it was already going on and chose denial. I can say that I worked in a fantastic project envisioning something like that. I even used the expression of "Invisible Warriors." For some in my team, the solution was real and reliable as any other project. For others, just a delusional creative project. I must admit, many times, I was daydreaming on all possibilities. Then I'd come back to the numbers of the opportunity and guess what? When they seemed very real to some of us, they looked like something crazy for others- the down to earth guys. Why? Because they were terrific numbers, based on the possibility of the Chaos. Well, Chaos was on the corner ( I even had the quote below in the presentation).

" Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not"

Isaac Asimov

But wasn't it always so evident that we would live this scenario somehow that science- fiction writers had written extensively about it? Was that a superpower? Yes, and No. What did the writers now then? Well, they could let their imagination flow. The key to surviving Chaos, dear reader, is to use your imagination and allow yourself to keep living in uncertainty. The most amazing scientists had shown to us that imagination is the key to discoveries.

So, who am I going to hire from now on? That's the easy one: people who are curious and can use their imagination and apply to real solutions.

Post Crisis requires a lot of strength and a lot of dreaming of rebuilding a life. Not as it was before the Mayhem, but how it is feasible, how it brings sense to our purposes, from now on. Think about the Renaissance. And how everything changed with a new approach to life, light, nature, science, and the Human perspective. Companies will need to shift their missions. Redesign their purpose. And you know why? Because all the people that experienced near-death experiences change their values and their quest. And guess what? We are all now in this near-death phase. The entire Humankind. Whether it is healthwise or financially wise.

Will we travel the way we used to? Will we date the way we used to? Will we eat the way we used to? Will we value our devices more than our relationships? What if we can re-create the experience of eating? What if we can re-create work interactions? What if we can transform value for our customers in a way that we HEAR what they long for? So, if you remember how we used to ask questions using the following words; "why", "who", "when", "what", "how", "how much" as they would bring us an objective answer and solve all problems.

Now you can play with only two sentences for you to rebuild the world. that will bring endless possibilities to the new world: "Will we .......?" and "What if....?" Explore more with your team in this way. Don't be fooled by the old ways to ask questions. The answers are not real. We are living times where science-fiction is way more real than any non-fiction dilemma. And remember: the answer is in the way you ask the question. It's in the exercise of the imagination.

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Paula Limena is the author of the Book "The Millennial Mind", and Global Director of Marketing, Insights, and Innovation at Lonza.