Elon Musk once said answers are easy, but the challenging part is figuring out what questions to ask.
Here are 25 questions for leaders focused on innovation:
1. How do we know what we are doing is working? 2. Who’s perspective are we not considering? 3. Is there a pattern we can learn from? 4. Why does this problem happen? 5. What is a different way to approach this problem?
A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger gives this question structure:
21 things you need to know about people if you want influence:
1. People don't care about the team or the greater good-they care about themselves
If you want people to see things your way, you need to show them what is in it for them.
2. People all follow a hierarchy of needs
In order, the needs are:
- Physiological (food and clothing),
- Safety (job security, not being killed),
- Love and belonging needs (friendship),
- Esteem (accomplishments),
- Self-actualization (potential)