Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life

by Hal Gregersen Narrated by Rick Adamson

Overview

2018 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner

What if you could unlock a better answer to your most vexing problem-in your workplace, community, or home life-just by changing the question?

Talk to creative problem-solvers and they will often tell you, the key to their success is asking a different question.

Take Debbie Sterling, the social entrepreneur who created GoldieBlox. The idea came when a friend complained about too few women in engineering and Sterling wondered aloud: ""why are all the great building toys made for boys?"" Or consider Nobel laureate Richard Thaler, who asked: ""would it change economic theory if we stopped pretending people were rational?"" Or listen to Jeff*Bezos*whose relentless approach to problem solving has fueled Amazon's exponential growth: “Getting the right question is key to getting the right answer.” *

Great questions like these have a catalytic quality-that is, they dissolve barriers to creative thinking and channel the pursuit of solutions into new, accelerated pathways. Often, the moment they are voiced, they have the paradoxical effect of being utterly surprising yet instantly obvious.

For innovation and leadership guru Hal Gregersen, the power of questions has always been clear-but it took some years for the follow-on question to hit him: If so much depends on fresh questions, shouldn't we know more about how to arrive at them? That sent him on a research quest ultimately including over two hundred interviews with creative thinkers.*Questions Are the Answer*delivers the insights Gregersen gained about the conditions that give rise to catalytic questions-and breakthrough insights-and how anyone can create them.

This book is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their creativity and problem-solving skills in the workplace.

With insights from over two hundred interviews with creative thinkers, author Hal Gregersen provides practical advice on how to arrive at catalytic questions that can lead to breakthrough insights.

HarperCollins 2024

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

09/24/2018
In this helpful book, Gregersen (The Innovator’s DNA), executive director of the MIT Leadership Center, posits that true breakthroughs come through questions instead of the simple, workable answers most self-help gurus lay claim to. “Questions have a curious power to unlock new insights and positive behavior change in every part of our lives,” he counsels, not just in the business setting but in personal lives as well. Setting the traditional model of regimented self-help advice on its ear, Gregersen shows that breakthroughs begin with reframed questions. To start the process, he suggests an exercise: readers should choose a challenge they feel deeply about, convene a small group to brainstorm, then discuss ideas and study the results of their thinking. Intended for both groups and individuals, more advanced methods for groups include creating safe spaces where discourse is encouraged and rewarded, and prompts for group thinking. Changing routines to take new, scenic routes in an attempt to see things in new ways, creating well-crafted stories, and listening for the unexpected are Gregersen’s main seeds of advice. Gregersen’s strategies will serve readers looking for innovative ways of rethinking personal fulfillment. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

I connected with this book’s message because I lived it. Everythingchanged for the better when I realized that I, like so many others, wasasking the wrong question. Our culture chases conventional notionsof success instead of nurturing what would really make us thrive. HalGregersen is absolutely right—the best way to get to a better answeris to start with a better question, and we can all learn to do that.” — Arianna Huffington

“It’s a great insight that, if you want to arrive at a better answer, you should start with a better question. Hal Gregersen takes that observation further, exploring how to put it into daily practice. I love this book’s emphasis on creating the conditions in which creative thinking will thrive, and I love its bighearted storytelling.” — Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com CEO

In his new book, Hal Gregersen reveals the power of cultivating a beginner’s mind, deep listening and continuous reflection in search of the right questions. Read this remarkable book and you will find a path to meaningful answers — Marc Benioff, Chairman & Co-CEO, Salesforce

Hal Gregersen is one of those rare educators who always practices what he preaches. Deliberately, he pushes himself out of his comfort zones, and consistently, he surfaces those great questions that unlock better answers. I think it’s wonderful that, with Questions Are the Answer, he is equipping so many more people to do the same. — Clayton M. Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School

“Creating an open environment where every manager can ask questions without fear is the first step in bringing innovation to achieve the betterment of a corporation. The author brings out how asking the right questions is the responsibility of a successful leader. A “must” read for every corporate person aspiring to succeed as a leader.”  — Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys

If you want a simple answer to the question of what matters most to creativity, then look no further than the title of this book. Mastering the art of questioning is not easy, but Hal Gregersen describes a wealth of valuable approaches that will serve you well — no matter what kinds of problems you are trying to solve.  — Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO and author of Design for Change

As machines become exceedingly proficient at providing answers, it becomes more and more important for people to be asking the right questions. Hal Gregersen is exactly right that this is a skill we can learn — and must teach. — Joi Ito, Director of the MIT Media Lab and author of Whiplash

Readers of both self-help and business books will enjoy this read as a challenge to their established perspective. — Library Journal

Marc Benioff

In his new book, Hal Gregersen reveals the power of cultivating a beginner’s mind, deep listening and continuous reflection in search of the right questions. Read this remarkable book and you will find a path to meaningful answers

Joi Ito

As machines become exceedingly proficient at providing answers, it becomes more and more important for people to be asking the right questions. Hal Gregersen is exactly right that this is a skill we can learn — and must teach.

Arianna Huffington

I connected with this book’s message because I lived it. Everythingchanged for the better when I realized that I, like so many others, wasasking the wrong question. Our culture chases conventional notionsof success instead of nurturing what would really make us thrive. HalGregersen is absolutely right—the best way to get to a better answeris to start with a better question, and we can all learn to do that.

Tim Brown

If you want a simple answer to the question of what matters most to creativity, then look no further than the title of this book. Mastering the art of questioning is not easy, but Hal Gregersen describes a wealth of valuable approaches that will serve you well — no matter what kinds of problems you are trying to solve. 

Tony Hsieh

It’s a great insight that, if you want to arrive at a better answer, you should start with a better question. Hal Gregersen takes that observation further, exploring how to put it into daily practice. I love this book’s emphasis on creating the conditions in which creative thinking will thrive, and I love its bighearted storytelling.

Clayton M. Christensen

Hal Gregersen is one of those rare educators who always practices what he preaches. Deliberately, he pushes himself out of his comfort zones, and consistently, he surfaces those great questions that unlock better answers. I think it’s wonderful that, with Questions Are the Answer, he is equipping so many more people to do the same.

Narayana Murthy

Creating an open environment where every manager can ask questions without fear is the first step in bringing innovation to achieve the betterment of a corporation. The author brings out how asking the right questions is the responsibility of a successful leader. A “must” read for every corporate person aspiring to succeed as a leader.” 

Tony Robbins

I see it over and over again. People with huge potential to maketheir mark in the world, and make the world better, don’t make enough progress because they aren’t starting with the right questions—mainly of themselves. Questions Are the Answer is a great read, but more important, I think for anyone trying to solve big problems, it will make a huge difference.

Narayan Murthy

Creating an open environment where every manager can ask questions without fear is the first step in bringing innovation to achieve the betterment of a corporation. The author brings out how asking the right questions is the responsibility of a successful leader. A “must” read for every corporate person aspiring to succeed as a leader.” 

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169979725
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/13/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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