46 The leader’s guide to lateral thinking skills

learn is the art of questioning. We should question everything, every

cherished assumption, every rule and method of the business. We
should start by asking the fundamental questions a child or a Martian
would ask: Why do we do this at all? Why do we do it this way?
By challenging the most basic tenets of the organization and the way
we do things we can prepare the ground for a crop of creative new
ideas.

CREATING A QUESTIONING ORGANIZATION

Lateral leaders ask very many fundamental questions. They also strive
to ensure that everyone is asking questions. Everyone is encouraged to
ask how things could be done differently, and how things could be
made better. Despite the fact that the company is already achieving
great things, it is essential to instil a questioning attitude: How could
we be even better? If ‘only the paranoid will survive’ then we must
engender a level of paranoia in the organization. We are doing well,
but the threat from the competition and from new entrants is very real.
The lateral leader ensures that everyone understands the vision and
goals of the enterprise, that people are empowered to achieve, and that
they know they have to question every rule and assumption, every
established way of doing things if they are going to initiate the creative
changes that the organization needs.
Most people ask one or two questions and then rush straight
towards a solution. It is a natural tendency – we think we understand
the issue and our keen managerial problem-solving urges are
unleashed. It is natural and fatal. With an incomplete understanding it
is very easy to jump to the wrong conclusions: for example, that the
problem is how to sell more pens. It is only by holding back and asking
question after question that we can explore the situation fully and find
more solutions and more creative solutions.

TIPS FOR ASKING QUESTIONS

Start with open-ended questions that elicit a wide range of answers
rather than closed questions, which can be answered yes or no. So