Critical (Uncritical) Questions

Do you sometimes ask difficult questions only to be met with silence?

The issue might not be what you’re asking – but how. When questions feel like tests, people retreat, afraid of being wrong.

As the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report highlighted, we need to be skilled at flexing between critical and creative modes of thinking. While expertly leading others to do the same.

For critical thinking, a distinction between right and wrong is… critical.

However for creative thinking, critical analysis can be exactly the wrong approach. Dismissing possibilities. Narrowing perspectives. Lowering energy.

So next time you need to increase creativity – whether it’s to strategically vision or innovatively explore – open minds by reassuring everyone that you’re not looking for the “right” answer. Otherwise our minds regress to deeply ingrained thought-patterns first learned at school, then amplified by workplaces – a fear of giving the wrong answer.

Instead creatively lift the energy when asking a question, by adding a closing comment like:

“I’m not looking for the right answer, what are some possibilities?”

It’s a simple shift, that can critically change everything.

Uncritically.