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Translator: Tijana Mihajlović
Reviewer: Denise RQ
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So, I've been thinking about thinking
for well over 20 years,
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and I think I have more questions
than I do answers.
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Now, I'd like to share
some of those questions with you today.
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On my journey,
I've been doing a lot of research
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and in 2009, I ran across this report
that just really caught my attention.
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In this report - it's from the company
called the Millennium Project -
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and this organization consists
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of well over 500 scientists, researchers,
academics, and business people
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from over 50 different countries.
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This report is called
the State of the Future Report,
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and they outlined
the 15 global challenges facing humanity.
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So the things you would expect to see:
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clean water, population growth,
energy were all on the list.
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It was number 9 that caught my attention.
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Number 9: the capacity to decide.
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In other words,
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decision-making made it on a list
of the global challenges facing humanity.
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Why is this the case?
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Why is decision-making
becoming more challenging,
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with all the information, technology,
and tools that we have available to us?
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Why is decision making on this list?
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Well, about 10 years ago,
we created this model.
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It's very simple,
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but I think it does a good job
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in explaining both the problem
as well as the opportunity.
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What we're finding is that most training
teaches people what to think,
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that is, it gives them the processes,
the procedures, the methodologies,
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and the information they need
to perform a task.
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This is very important,
because we all need a solid foundation.
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However, what to think
is a lot like fast food:
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it's convenient, it's fast,
it's prepackaged,
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and oftentimes, it's overly processed
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in the form of regurgitated
ideas and opinions
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that do very little to contribute
to our deeper understanding of the world.
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Mass media understands this,
politicians certainly understand this,
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and I believe schools know this.
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Take for example news.
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They repeat the same message over
and over and over until we believe it.
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Politicians craft 4 or 5 bullet points
and repeat those over and over.
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Schools: they package content,
chunk it, and sequence it,
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and they give us a test
to see if we could remember any of it.
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This begs the question then:
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why are we surprised when we find people
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that are not as creative, innovative,
and passionate as they could be?
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This is where the opportunity comes in.
We have to shift our thinking.
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That is, in addition
to teaching people what to think,
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we also need to educate them
on how to think.
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So, for example,
if I teach you what to think,
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you can take what you've learned
and apply it to a similar situation.
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However, if you learn how to think,
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you can take what you've learned
and adapt it to multiple situations.
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In other words,
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how to think is learning how to learn,
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or as we like to say, it's to learn,
unlearn, and relearn quickly.
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My mission is to help schools
as well as corporations
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find the optimal balance
between what and how,
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and I've done this
by focusing really on two areas:
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cognitive neuroscience
and computer science.
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In cognitive neuroscience,
what I'm looking for is how do we learn,
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that is, how do we create
new neural pathways
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and looking at the impacts
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that bias, communication, education
has on learning and memory.
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From a computer science point of view,
looking for new technologies
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that not only allow us
to study decision-making
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but allow us to create an environment
that we can put people in
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so they can learn how to think.
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We've done this
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by creating highly advanced
computer-based simulations.
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Using these simulations,
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we can challenged participants
to make decisions and solve problems
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that are similar to the ones
that they face in their own organization.
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So not only do they learn how to think
about their own organization,
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but we can capture
significant amount of data
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so we can assess their thinking over time.
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This is what we found.
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When people have a lot of training,
that is, a lot what-to-think training,
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and they're placed in these simulations,
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and they're confronting the problems
that they face in the real world,
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most participants resorted to guessing,
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that is, when we gave them
more data, tools, checklists, choices,
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their decision-making did not improve;
if anything, it got worse.
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So, realizing that many of the challenges
that people face today
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are too big for just one person,
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we shifted our focus
to looking at team performance.
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So, here is our line of thinking.
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We thought if we can improve
team performance,
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how people collaborate,
how they solve problems together,
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we can then improve their overall thinking
and hopefully, their decision-making.
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Let me give you an example.
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Let's say we are all part
of the big organization
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and a few of us have been tasked
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with growing a certain division
of that organization.
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So we get together,
and I get together with you,
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and I say, "Hey,
what does growth mean to you?"
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And you say, "Well,
it's about profitability and revenue."
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I go to someone else,
"What does growth mean to you?"
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You might say,
"It is about people and engagement."
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And another person may say,
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"Well, it's actually
about market share and price."
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All of these are valid.
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We're excited to be part
of something new, a new initiative,
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doing something important
for the organization,
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so we get out there and make a promise
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we're going to grow this division
by x percent over this period in time.
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Then we get back together,
roll up our sleeves
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and start putting our plans together,
and that's when it hits us.
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The realization that we all have
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a very different perspective
of what growth means.
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When that happens, conflict happens.
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We've all felt this.
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I could easily switch
the word growth with community.
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We all have different
perspectives on community.
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Politics. Wow, lots of perspectives there.
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Family, relationships.
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Actually, I think that there's lenses
that they call Mars and Venus there.
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So realizing that when we feel conflict,
because we have different perspectives,
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can be demoralizing.
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It can drain our energy
and erode our passion.
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So, after about five years,
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we honestly felt like boiling the ocean,
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trying to find skills
that improve team performance.
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We tried everything.
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We tried teaching people
conflict resolution, coaching, mentoring,
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and we gave them
checklists, and processes, and tools.
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Bottom-line: none of these created
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the sustainable improvement
that we were looking for.
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When we were looking
for that improvement,
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we decided to step back
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and ask a different question:
what do top performers do?
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Finally, we found one skill
that was common to all top performers.
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They developed ability
to ask good questions.
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I know that sounds simple,
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but what they asked
and how they asked was very different.
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For example, many of them were able
to suspend their judgment just long enough
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to understand someone else's perspective,
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and in doing so, they were able
to reduce the conflict,
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develop a common language,
and create a shared vision.
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As the situation evolved,
so did their thinking.
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I know we all ask a lot of questions,
and that's a really good thing;
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we want people to be asking
lots and lots of questions.
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But what we found, however,
is that most questions are safe,
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that is, they surface
what is already seen or understood,
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they lead to regurgitated
ideas and opinions.
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In other words,
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most questions that people ask
really surface what is already known.
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Top performers, however,
ask questions that go deep.
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They ask questions that move us
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from automatic and reactionary thinking
to deep thinking,
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they ask questions
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that inspire creativity, fuel passion,
and lead to profound ideas,
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and most importantly, they ask questions
that spur people into action.
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In other words, they ask questions
that demystify the unknown,
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and in doing so,
open up an ocean of possibilities.
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Our brain is an amazing
searchable data base,
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linking emotions, memories, events,
and experiences together
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to form answers to our endless questions.
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The success of a good answer, however,
relies on the words we choose.
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Our words have amazing power on our brain.
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How we use words in framing our questions
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is what differentiates
a good question from a bad question.
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Let me give you an example.
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When we saw people
put into the simulation,
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or confronted with these challenges,
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they started to make decisions.
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The teams that were struggling would ask,
"What should we do?"
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and it was almost as though the options
in front of them were just narrowed down.
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They became very short-term focused,
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whereas the other teams would ask,
"What could we do?"
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and it was like the ocean
of possibilities opened up to them.
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The same is true for the types
of questions we ask ourselves.
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For example, if I ask,
"Why do I always procrastinate?",
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my brain will surely tell me
that's because I'm lazy,
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because I have too much to do,
I don't know where to get started.
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However, if I slightly reframe that
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and say, "How am I going
to get this done?",
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my brain will surely find a better answer.
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I know if I was sitting out
in where you are right now,
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I would say, "So what?"
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There's got to be a lot more to this
than just framing questions.
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Well, there is.
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I believe that, since we've been taught
what to think for so long,
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that the very idea of asking a question
that triggers deep thinking
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provokes so many different emotions.
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It creates uncertainty,
fear, anxiety, stress.
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These are all very real
biological reactions to questions
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and from the neuroscience perspective,
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too much of any of these
can impair our learning,
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our ability to connect, to listen
and be present with one another.
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So, what we found
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is that the individuals
who would embrace these emotions,
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that is, understand that these are
just part of the natural process,
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and asking good questions
and allowing questions to do their work,
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then questions can really start
to make a difference.
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So a good question will expose our bias.
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A good question will surface our beliefs
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and oftentimes, questions will expose
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that we may not know something
as well as we think we do.
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These are good things to have happened
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because when this happens,
learning can take place.
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This is when people can come connected.
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This is when they can create relatedness,
understand, and believe in one another.
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This is when people can work together
to adapt their thinking.
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So now, the good news is that I've seen
kids, parents, coaches, business people,
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and even politicians break through
these emotional and mental barriers
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and learn to become confident
in asking good questions.
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There are a lot of challenges
in this world.
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We all have them,
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whether they are in our business,
in our cities, in our schools,
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in our families, in our relationships.
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We all have them.
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We all have a very different lens
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on what these challenges are
and how to address them.
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And this is a really good thing
because I believe
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that most of these problems
are too big for one person,
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and we really need each other.
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What if?
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What if you learned
how to ask good questions every day?
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What if tomorrow,
when you went to meet with somebody,
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you seek to understand them,
instead of trying to be understood?
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What if before every important meeting
you took time to write down questions
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that would move the conversation
from the known to the unknown?
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What if executives led by questions,
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not by questioning but asking questions
that inspired others
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to think about what they could do
not what they should do?
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What if churches, synagogues, mosques
asked, "How ought we to live?"
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instead of focusing
on what others don't do.
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What if parents asked their kids,
"What great question did you ask today?"
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instead of asking,
"What did you learn today?"
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With questions,
you get what you asked for,
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and in era in which computers
are getting better at answering questions,
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we need people who are getting better
at asking questions.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
