On a Sunday afternoon, Miss NonStop calls up her best friend, Miss NonStart after a long time. Here is how the coversaion goes :

 

NonStop : Hi, how are you ?
NonStart : <just about to reply>

 

NonStop : I am sure you must be fine. What did you do yesterday ?
NonStart : <just about to reply>

 

NonStop : I am sure you must have gone to the mall. Are you going for the movie this evening ?
NonStart : <just about to reply>

 

NonStop : I am sure you must be ...
..
..

As ridiculous as this might sound, we end up doing the same with our Automatic Innovation Mechanism many a times.

 

This newsletter will deal with the art of asking great questions.

 

There are 2 ways in which we can miss upon the power of questioning :

1. Not asking any question at all.
2. Asking great questions to our Automaic Innovation Mechanism, but providing the answers ourselves, much like Miss NonStop !!! Poor AIM, doesnt even get a chance to start.

 

Why does this happen ?

 

The "I" survives in familiarity. It is very very uncomfortable with unfamiliar situations and unanswered questions. Asking a question for which the answer is not yet known creates an uncertainty in the mind, which "I" is very uncomfortable with, and it tries to balance the situation by providing an answer to it right away.

 

Now, when "I" gives an answer, surely the question has been answered, but is this the right answer ? You never know and you may never be able to verify. Just like the above conversation, where NonStop does have answers to all the questions that she asked, but all these answers come from what NonStop already knows about NonStart, and will never be able to know the really right answers to the questions ...

 

When "I" answers a question, it will only be based on what the "I" is already familiar with. "I" cannot give an answer which it doesnt know already. If you really want the right answer or an innovative/creative answer, it has to come from "AIM".

 

Start looking at your conversation skills with "AIM".

 

How do you react to unanswered questions ?

Do you answer all those questions yourself ?

Can you differentiate whether an answer came from "I" or "AIM" ?

 

"AIM" does have all the answers.

 

Only if you can survive those uncertain feelings long enough. You have to be silent to listen to it. You have to stop answering. You have to be comfortable with that uncomfortable, unfamiliar situation that arises from unanswered questions.

 

Just Stay with the question

 

Ask the question again and again, persist with the question, but dont short-circuit the mechanism by answering yourself.

 

You will be surprised with the qualitative change in the solutions you start coming up with. And with little practise, you will be getting lots of answers lot more quickly - because now "AIM" will know for sure that you mean it when you have asked a question.