What should we do?
What can we do?

Both these questions are good but have limitations.

What may already be assuming there is a single answer.  Should presumes we know what we ought to be doing.  Can focuses on our resources as we see them in this moment.  We is possibly a limited group of people.  Do anticipates action, sooner rather than later.

Perhaps I’m overcooking these questions but, in comparison, here’s the power of the question: How might we?

To ask how opens up the possibility of more creativity.  Might allows ideas which may or may not work to be offered up.  And there’s we, again, but, as part of this question which has opened things up twice-over, this we likely includes more people.

“The how part assumes there are solutions out there – it provides creative confidence.  Might says we can put ideas out there that might work or might not – either way, it’s okay.  And the we part days we’re going to do it together and build on each other’s ideas.”*

Life is best when faced with questions which open it up, not close it down.  Without rulebooks and owner’s manuals, life is often more intriguing and beautiful when it emerges from messiness rather than tidiness.

‘Because change is now a constant, the willingness to be comfortable with, and even to embrace, ambiguity is critical for today’s leaders.’**

(*IDEO’s Tim Brown, quoted in Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question.)
(**From Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question.)