VadiK teachings Vadim Kotelnikov

Culture of Questioning

Driving innovation and continuous improvement

Vadim Kotelnikov, founder of 1000ventures - personal logo VadiK

Inventor Business e-Coach

Author Innoball

Founder Innompic Games icon

 
Culture for Innovation Culture for Questioning Leading by Example Searching for Opportunities "Why?" and "What If" Questions Kaizen Mindset Continuous Improvement Firm Be Different and Make a Difference! Vadim Kotelnikov Ten3 Business e-Coach Challenging Assumptions Reassessing Past Decisions Coaching By Questioning Searching Questions Culture of Questioning and Innovation: How To Create 5 Tips  

Effective questions make people think about new ways of doing things.

How can you create a culture of questioning? Lead by example – start with yourself.

Ask lots of questions.

Don’t question competence – ask open-ended searching questions instead.

  

 
 

Creative dissatisfaction, challenging assumption and searching questions are critical to innovation, radical improvements and continuous improvement. Questions make you think about new ways of doing things. Exploration of possibilities, discoveries, innovation, and progress start with challenging assumptions, asking searching “Why?” and “What if?” questions, and plying “What if” scenarios.

  

Challenge Assumptions

Types of Questions

Culture of Creative Dissatisfaction

Ask Learning SWOT Questions

  

 
   

Five Strategies for Creating a Culture of Questioning

 

  

 
 

① Be a Model

Lead by example; constantly search for new opportunities; ask lots of “Why?” and “What if?” questions

② Improve

Establish a mentality that everything can and should be improved and encourage people to ask “How?” questions

③ Do Differently

Encourage people to challenge assumptions; run “The Best Question” contests

④ Reassess

Assign teams to reassess past decisions periodically: Are they still effective in a changing environment? Do our proactive-futuring strategies need to be updated?

⑤ Educate

Train people to ask effective open-ended futures-thinking, enlightening and searching questions; promote coaching by questioning.

  

 
 

Entrepreneurial questions help identify risk areas in the company and invent ways to reduce these risk.

Searching questions open your mind to what is possible, help you discover new opportunities, uncover the roots of a problem, and find creative solutions to it.

 

Culture of Questioning: Examples

Toyota's Culture of Questioning

  

 
   

Searching for New Opportunities

Examples of 'Why? What If?' Questions

Why we always do things this way? What if we do it differently?

Why should we limit ourselves to getting better in what we are doing? What if we change things radically?

Why should we look at problems as an evil? What if we try to convert problems into opportunities?

Why don't we challenge our big competitor's market leadership position? What if we create a new market niche or even a new trend?

Why should we look at cultural differences as a problem? What if we try to leverage the power of our diversity?

 

  

 
   

Lead change by asking questions  ▪  Question-based Management