The Art of Questioning
The key to unlocking the door to creativity.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about questioning, specifically the power of questions to spark creativity. In truth, this idea has been at the back of my mind for some time now, but it has been pushed to the fore after reading “Speculative Everything ” by designers Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby.
For the sake of not simply regurgitating a quote from the book, Dunne and Raby basically propose a new kind of design centered on asking questions; “what if” questions intended to open up debate and thrive on imagination.
As a creative strategist or, better yet, someone who constantly questions the world around him, I find value in this passionate spirit of questioning. On one of my first client assignments as a strategist in the Ad World, all I could initially provide to the senior strategist supervising me was more questions than answers, and I had often wondered if this was a huge faux pas.
“Planning in other words, was (and at its best continues to be) about going to the root of the matter. It [is] about asking questions — the obvious yet unasked, the awkward, the penetrating, the fresh and unexpected. It appreciate[s] the fundamental truth that creativity begins with questioning.” — Martin Weigel
But after reading this dazzling treatise on radical planning by Martin Weigel — Head of Planning at Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam — , I now realize that I was actually spot-on or at the very least heading towards the right direction. While Weigel’s treatise is a call to arms for more rationalism in advertising, at various points he draws the link between asking questions and creativity:
“If we desire a broader application of creativity to clients’ business needs and issues, then we must go beyond the merely superficial and apply ourselves more seriously to asking more, better, and different questions.”
Unbeknownst to me, what I misunderstood at the time as merely sheepish behavior was in reality a silent knock on the door to creative opportunities. Fortunately, despite my self-doubt, I kept asking questions on several client assignments to follow — all in an effort to discover non-obvious insights.
Yet, the real beauty of asking questions isn’t necessarily just the prospect of finding answers and gaining insight, but of uncovering even more questions, because this, in essence, means that new doors of thinking — with endless creative possibilities — are opening up. One good example to illustrate this are the myriad questions raised about the adoption and impact of Google Glass by global innovation expert and frequent questioner Jan Chipchase. While awkward and obvious at times, the questions raised represent nodes of thinking that can each spawn new lines of thought or creative discoveries.
“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” — Albert Einstein
Of course this inevitably raises the issue of what constitutes good and bad questions, as well as how to ask questions and whether questioning should be viewed as a means to an end or an end in itself. These issues are certainly all up for debate, but the idea that fearless questions remain one of the most powerful tools at the disposal of any creative mind remains beyond dispute.
In need of some proof? Last week, Simon Collins — the Dean of Fashion at Parsons The New School for Design —, revealed that the idea for his new book chronicling the school’s most celebrated alumni started with a simple question. Not proof enough? Just over a year ago, renowned filmmaker Ang Lee alluded to asking questions as a central part of his creative process. Still not convinced? Five years ago, pioneering musician Brian Eno explained in detail how he developed ambient music after asking a series of questions.
“Not knowing is the necessary precondition of new knowledge, of finding out something new.” — Ben Highmore
Evidently the power of questions to unlock the door to creativity extends far beyond the worlds of design, advertising, and innovation — to every line of work (or play) imaginable. Yet, to truly benefit from all that questioning has to offer requires us to be able to find comfort in ambiguity; to recognize our precondition of not knowing and let curiosity guide our path to discovery.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Do leave a note if you have any comments or you can also recommend the article if you like it.
