"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

26 February 2012

Question.


The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

- Milan Kundera

In today's world, the old ways of doing business no longer produce the results nor provide the value they once did. We are constantly faced with having to find new and better ways of operating. Consequently, one of the top challenges we face as leaders is that of "enhancing creativity" within ourselves and within others. In taking on this challenge we must first comprehend the intimacy of the relationship between creativity and thinking. Our ability to be creative depends upon our capacity to think which in turn depends upon our ability to question not only our practices but also our beliefs and assumptions. We must learn to question the limits of our thinking. It is through this manner of questioning that we are able to rethink our thinking. Thus, the quality of our questions determines the quality of our creativity.

To enhance creativity, we must develop and maintain an attitude of creative questioning. We must become competent in the art of "asking dumb questions," the first of which might be: "What is a dumb question?" While this question may sound naive, after all everyone knows what a dumb question is, the answer to this dumb question, like all answers to dumb questions, is not as straight forward as we might imagine.


Read on at The Creativity Post.

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