In the final publication of the October throughline we explore how to build a culture of innovation one question at a time.
Your Snapshot
A quick synthesis of this issue to share
💡 Innovation starts with the quality of your questions. Asking the right questions leads to new possibilities and innovative solutions.
💡 We are often drawn to ideas because we want to fix problems; starting with an idea feels safe and more fun than starting with a problem.
💡 If we want an innovative culture in our teams, we need to start with questions instead of ideas.
💡 Trust and psychological safety create the culture for collective negative capability, which John Keats coined as “the ability to live with ambiguity and uncertainty.”
💡 Commit to action by being aware of your need for certainty, make space for ambiguity and uncertainty in development work, and build trust by encouraging questions.
Siren Call of New Ideas
We often think of innovation as coming up with new ideas, but the reality is that most new ideas are combinations of existing ones.
The process of combining ideas in new and exciting ways is what creativity is all about. We are drawn to this creative process like a siren call. We love coming up with new ideas, of being the first to have them. It’s an intoxicating feeling. We get a rush from it. And so we’re constantly on the lookout for new ideas.
But where does this compulsion to start with ideas come from? Why are we so drawn to them?
I believe there are three reasons.
- We want to fix it. It doesn’t require any real effort or commitment. You can sit around all day thinking about ideas; it doesn’t cost you a thing.
- Starting with an idea feels safe. It’s like playing with legos; there’s no risk involved. If you don’t like the idea you came up with, you can discard it and move on to the next one.
- Starting with an idea is fun. It’s much more enjoyable than starting with a problem. Ideas are full of possibilities and potential. They make us feel good about ourselves and our ability to solve problems.
Starting with a problem, on the other hand, feels dangerous. You’re putting yourself out there, exposing yourself to criticism and failure. So it’s no wonder we’re drawn to ideas like a siren call.
But if we want to be successful in innovation, we need to resist this temptation and start with problems instead. Only by starting with problems can we hope to find truly creative solutions.
The quality of your ideas will not surpass the quality of your questions.
A good question doesn’t just lead to better development; it also leads to better questions. The process of asking and exploring questions is what drives creativity and innovation.
Questioning and problem-finding are hard work. They require us to think deeply and critically, and they can frustrate us and challenge our assumptions. But they are essential to the innovation process and normalising creative habits.
If we want to find truly creative solutions, we need to start with questions instead of ideas. By starting with questions, we open ourselves up to new possibilities and innovative solutions.
“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
What are the foundations of innovation?
I often think about the direction questions or ideas take us. Think forwards and backwards, progress and pondering. But we can challenge this directional mental model and consider ideas as a pyramid (Issue #218).
You are right to think that at the base are quality questions. Quality ideas are built on a foundation of questions. But another layer extends below: trust and psychological safety.
If we want our teams to be innovative, we need to create an environment where people feel safe to take risks, experiment, and fail. We need to build a culture of trust and psychological safety.
Only then will our teams be able to ask the quality questions that lead to innovative solutions.
This means that when someone asks: “What are we missing here?” or “I am not sure about this decision,” we lift them up and encourage more questions.
Does uncertainty irritate you?
With the foundations of trust and psychological safety, we create a culture of collective negative capability. John Keats coined the term “negative capability” in a letter to his brother in 1817. He defined it as when we are:
“capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”
In other words, it’s the ability to live with ambiguity and uncertainty. To be able to hold multiple contradictory ideas in your head at the same time and not be bothered by them.
It’s the ability to tolerate chaos and not need to fix or understand everything immediately. Stay in the question for longer.
This is a difficult concept for many of us. We are wired to seek certainty, and the unknown can be terrifying. But to be creative and innovative, we must learn to embrace uncertainty.
We must learn to live with the contradictions and ambiguity inherent in the creative process. We must trust answers will come in time, and the process is more important than the product.
Negative capability is essential for creativity and innovation. It allows us to explore new possibilities and come up with creative solutions. Without negative capability, we would be limited by our need for certainty, progress, ideas and our need to be correct.
⏭🎯 Your Next Steps
Commit to action and turn words into works
- Be aware of your need for certainty.
- Make space for ambiguity and uncertainty in your development work.
- Build trust and psychological safety by encouraging questions and lifting people up.
🗣💬 Your Talking Points
Lead a team dialogue with these provocations
- What are we not talking about enough?
- Do you tend to ask more or fewer questions as the level of uncertainty rises?
- What conditions need to be in place for you to feel safe to experiment?