To make the journey we must ask the right questions at the right times.

First of all there are the big open questions: What if?

These are divergent, and can be random, disconnected, and even bizarre.  Messy!  The aim is to maximise the number of possibilities.

Then there are the focusing questions: Which?

These are identifying in nature, picking out the best and most promising of all the generated possibilities: things which connect with the goal(s) and resonate with the stakeholders.

Finally, there are the narrowing questions: How?

These are critical of the ideas, honing and shaping them towards making something happen – sooner rather than later to be able to fail fast, learn, and improve.

What if?  Which?  How?  They make for a journey of great possibilities, but they can’t be asked in the wrong order.  Some ask How? first and never get to the others.

Different people will be better at asking one or two types of question.  Allow them to lead.  Everyone, though, must (and can) play the game required at each point on the journey.

It begins here:

‘Scratching is not about control and repose.  It’s about unleashing furious mindless energy and watching it bounce off everything in your path.  The hope is that a spark will fly from all that contact and combustion – and it usually does.’*

(*From Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit.)