The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead

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The idea for this book came out of my experiences in promoting and marketing my previous book, A More Beautiful Question (AMBQ). That book made the case that questioning is often the starting point of innovation and growth—a concept that has resonated in the business world and beyond. Berger’s surprising findings reveal that even though children start out asking hundreds of questions a day, questioning “falls off a cliff” as kids enter school. In an education and business culture devised to reward rote answers over challenging inquiry, questioning isn’t encouraged—and, in fact, is sometimes barely tolerated. p6 The simplest and most powerful thing that happens when we ask ourselves questions is that it forces us to think. More specifically, when we’re working on questions in our minds we’re engaged in “slow thinking,” the term used by Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman to describe the kind of deliberate, effortful cognition that tends to lead to better decisions. choices, and actions. This might involve something as simple as pausing before making a decision or pursuing a course of action to ask, What am I really trying to achieve here?

In The Book of Beautiful Questions , expert “questionologist” Warren Berger shares illuminating stories and compelling research on the power of inquiry. Drawing from the insights and expertise of psychologists, innovators, effective leaders, and some of the world's foremost creative thinkers, he presents the essential questions readers need to make the best choices when it truly counts, with a particular focus in four key areas: decision-making , creativity , leadership , and relationships .New Zealand psychologist and educator Max Gold tells us, “The question behind this beautiful question is: how do we know what we know is true? It questions the basis for our perception of what is real in the world, and therein lies the attractiveness of the question from my point of view.… In the world of complex human relationships and interactions in which I exist as a psychologist, seldom is it the case that truth can be established with any veracity. The best source of knowledge involves triangulating data from a variety of sources and perspectives. That makes establishing how we know what we know in human relationships like assembling a jigsaw puzzle.” And Gold feels that questioning can help with this assembly. I read this book out of curiosity about the "36 questions" that resulted in people falling in love. Over the next few months, I will be sharing many interesting and useful questions and anecdotes from the book. Sign up today for my newsletter to get these insights automatically delivered to your inbox. There is great power in the questions we ask. To learn to harness that power and put it to good use in your life, at work or with your Peruvian tour guide, The Book of Beautiful Questions is an invaluable resource. And what else? The “AWE” question may be the best way to draw out deeper insights—and keep you in listening mode.

Cara Herman of Crush Republic sent in this question. Her point is that in trying to get people to respond to her agency’s research questions, it can be most effective to “have them respond naturally, without thinking (or) filtering their answers.” Which requires asking questions in a whole different way—thereby encouraging people to give more honest, organic responses. Thanks, Cara. And yes, I’m certain we can help each other on our respective quests to “master the art of asking questions.” “What would happen if teenagers believed they deeply mattered to the world around them?” A beautiful question is an ambitious yet actionable question that can begin to shift the way we perceive or think about something—and that might serve as a catalyst to bring about change. p115 As a reminder to talk less and listen more, try asking yourself the “WAIT question,” shared by psychologist Ronald Siegel. “WAIT stands for Why Am I Talking?,” Siegel explains, adding: “This simple question can help cultivate a reflective attitude” that restrains the impulse to interrupt and interject while listening to someone.

Customer reviews

Chapter 1 (focus on decision making) was weak. I have recently read or re-read most of the books he references, and in truth a lot of structure is lost in translation. Berger focuses on the questions that each of the authors he references ask, as part of their methodology... which is fiiine, but hardly the panacea he seems to believe it might be. The thing with this section is that most of the books he summarises are genuinely good and worth reading in their own right, and the way they are presented here is doing them a disservice. Is there a relationship between innovation and the ability to ask ambitious questions? The journalist and innovation expert Berger argues there is, and in this breezy management book he seeks to improve our capacity to question.... One closes A MORE BEAUTIFUL QUESTION newly conscious of the significance of smart questions.”

From Kathryn, a high school student in California: – “Will the world ever run out of water?” – “Which place in the world has the cleanest water, and which place has the dirtiest?” – “How did humans first discover we need water to survive?”Innovation expert and questionologist Warren Berger has studied hundreds of the world’s foremost innovators, entrepreneurs, and creative thinkers to learn how they ask questions, generate original ideas, and solve problems. He is the author or co-author of eleven books, including three books on questioning: QUESTIONING IN THE CLASSROOM; THE BOOK OF BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead; and the bestselling A MORE BEAUTIFUL QUESTION: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. GLIMMER, his internationally acclaimed 2009 book on design thinking, was named one of Businessweek’s Best Innovation and Design Books of the Year. His writing appears regularly in Psychology Today, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and The New York Times. He lives in New York. L'uomo libro" riesce a contenere circa 100 libri e può assumere forme diverse per rispondere agli interrogativi quanto mai costanti e variabili di cui è fatta la vita degli uomini e quella dei loro libri.