Leading Libraries Series: Leading for Innovation
Inquiry and reflection
Breakthrough questions: guiding your inquiry
The idea of 'Breakthrough Questions' comes from the Design Thinking (DT) family of approaches which are closely aligned with modern innovation methods. We are using many Design Thinking methods and skills in this Leading for Innovation set
so that you can combine these important aspects into your approach to your innovation challenge.
If you decide to look further into DT as a field, you will find that many of the processes and principles echo the ideas we are covering under 'innovation' here. There isn't a clear boundary between the two approaches – people often use the
words interchangeably – and most of what you are learning here could be described under either approach.
In this Leading for innovation set, we will take the most useful and easily applied concepts and methods from each area – and the idea of a 'Breakthrough Question' is one of the most useful ideas we have come across!
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depending on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask. For once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”
Albert Einstein
A Breakthrough Question:
- helps us to inquire in way that promotes new discoveries
- points towards an inspiring possibility
- helps to unlock the creative potential of people and groups
- acts like a ‘guiding light’ for the innovation process
- moves on from the Why (our vision), and the What, Who, What for (our Scope) to HOW?
Setting a breakthrough question
As you go into your Inquire and Reflect stages, you can use your Breakthrough Question to:
- Provide a ‘headline’ to use to let others know what you are focussing on
- Act as a guide and frame for your inquiry
- Share with others to inspire them to assist or share their views
- Provide a reminder to ‘hold in mind’ as you go about your day-to-day work to remind you of your challenge.
The anatomy of a good breakthrough question
A good question doesn’t depend just on the type of question it is, but also on how you ask it. The form of a question is part of its function.
Good questions should be framed under these principles:
Encourage breakthrough thinking
Good questions open up new possibilities. They involve people in divergent thought processes that lead to new perspectives.
For example, when designing a new login screen, instead of just asking, “How could we make the login process faster?” you could ask, “How could we deliver value to our users without them having to log in?”
Challenge assumptions
They should help clarify the situation and cause individuals, teams, and organizations to explore the methods, processes, and conventions that drive their actions.
For example, "We seem to be assuming that only we can solve our users issue here? How would our approach change if we assumed that our role was to help them solve the issue themselves?'
Cause the listener to stretch
They should encourage reflection and help people go beyond the obvious. Good questions motivate people to take things to the next level.
For example, when discussing an innovation with teams, instead of asking, “Can you do this?” you could ask, “Supposing this is the way to go, what would you need to have or eliminate in order to accomplish this?”
Empower
Disempowering questions focus on why the person did not succeed, which puts that person in a defensive mode. Empowering questions are asked from trust—they get people to think and find their own answers, which transfers ownership and develops
self-responsibility.
For example, when asking people about how they have worked on an issue in the past you can say “What other options have you explored, and why did you choose this one?”, rather than "Why didn't this change work in the past?"
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