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Warren Berger believes questions are more important than answers. A best-selling author and self-proclaimed “questionologist,” Warren is on a mission to help all leaders learn how to use questioning to support innovative, resilient and adaptive organizations.
We caught up with Warren recently to ask him about why it’s more important than ever to lean into questioning and curiosity.
Lisa Kay Solomon: Your recent book is called A More Beautiful Question. Can you talk about what a “beautiful question” is and why they are so important to ask?
Warren Berger: I am particularly interested in questions that lead to innovation. So, I studied a lot of those kinds of questions to see what they had in common and arrived at this definition: A beautiful question is an ambitious yet actionable question that can shift the way we think about something and may serve as a catalyst for change.
Each aspect is important. “Ambitious” because we have to ask bold questions to innovate. “Actionable” because big questions we can’t do anything about don’t lead to change. Critically, the question has to cause a mental shift—it makes you step back and say, “Hmmm, that’s interesting. I hadn’t really thought about this question before, and I want to explore it further.”
These kinds of questions are the starting point of innovation and growth, which is why every leader should be asking them and encouraging others to ask them.
LKS: How does questioning help us become better innovators?
WB: Questioning helps us become more comfortable and proactive in dealing with the unknown, which is critical for innovators. Innovators often operate in a realm where the solution to a particular problem is unknown or may even seem impossible.
The innovator’s job is to explore that unknown and arrive at a completely new and original answer. Questions can help the innovator keep moving forward; you start with one question, then that can lead you to a better, deeper question, and so on. You could almost think of questioning as “an app for the unknown.”
When you finally arrive at the answer—the innovation—it may seem the questioning is over. But it isn’t really. Soon, the innovator is wondering how to make their creation even better, more affordable—how they can expand upon it.
For true innovators, the cycle of questioning never ends.
LKS: Are you seeing technology change the type of questions we should be asking?
WB: Technology has thrown everything open to question because everything we thought we knew how to do can now be done differently. The shoe-retailer must ask a whole new set of questions as new technology revolutionizes that business. And it’s like that in every category—everything is being reinvented, and then reinvented again.
You might think this would cause us to ask more technical questions, but I also find it’s causing us to ask more basic questions, like “What business am I really in?” When you find your industry and your customer’s lifestyle are being reinvented, you have to go back to basics and ask fundamental questions.
Warren Berger.LKS: In AMBQ, you advocate for turning mission statements into mission questions. Can you share more about why that’s so important?
WB: Research suggests questions are more engaging and motivational than statements because they are more open-ended and invite participation. Mission statements might be better phrased as questions that start, for example, with the words "How might we."
Let’s say a robotics company’s statement is, “We make the world a better place through robotics.” That doesn’t sound very credible, and it also sounds like they’ve already done it. “How might we make the world a better place through robotics?” is more open-ended, forward-looking—and it invites people to help answer the question.
LKS: What are the most important questions leaders should start to ask themselves now?
WB: One big question they could ask is, “How might I foster a culture of inquiry?”
To do this, leaders must lead by example. They need to ask big questions in front of others and exhibit their own curiosity. But they also need to encourage others to question more. Even though a leader can (and should) serve as the “Questioner in Chief,” the real potential is when people at all levels wonder and inquire together.
In the book, I refer to this as “collaborative inquiry.” When lots of people are asking their own questions and also working together on big, shared “How might we” questions, you have a great breeding ground for innovation and growth. Plus, you’re more likely to have a highly-engaged workforce. When people are curious and asking questions, they’re more intellectually engaged.
LKS: How can leaders build skills and incentivize questioning throughout their companies?
WB: Talk to people about the kinds of questions the company is most interested in. Give examples and stories to help them understand the difference between high potential questions and less powerful or useful questions.
You can also do question-formulation exercises—basically, “question-storming” where you train people to come up with questions instead of ideas. This gets people used to asking questions quickly on any challenge, but you can also use the exercises to teach them how to refine and improve their questions.
To incentivize asking questions, make sure you share and celebrate the great questions people come up with. And try not to punish questioning, by saying things like, “Don’t bring me questions, bring me answers!” There can be real value in someone bringing you a question, and you shouldn’t necessarily expect them to have the answer immediately or by themselves.
If it’s a big enough “beautiful question,” it might end up being something the whole organization goes to work answering!
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Machine learning, automated vehicles, additive manufacturing and robotics—all popular news headlines, and all technologies that are changing the way the US and the world makes, ships and consumes goods. New technologies are developing at an exponentially increasing pace, and organizations are scrambling to stay ahead of them.
At the center of this change lie the companies creating the products of tomorrow.
Whether it’s self-driving commercial trucks or 3D-printed rocket engines, the opportunities for financial success and human progress are greater than ever. Looking to the future, manufacturing will begin to include never-before-seen approaches to making things using uncommon methods such as deep learning, biology and human-robot collaboration.
That’s where Singularity University’s Exponential Manufacturing summit comes in.
Last year’s event showed how artificial intelligence is changing research and development, how robots are moving beyond the factory floor to take on new roles, how fundamental shifts in energy markets and supply chains are being brought about by exponential technologies, how additive manufacturing is nearing an atomic level of precision, and how to make sure your organization stays ahead of these technologies to win business and improve the world.

Hosted in Boston, Massachusetts May 17-19, Exponential Manufacturing is a meetup of 600+ of the world’s most forward-thinking manufacturing leaders, investors and entrepreneurs. These are the people who design and engineer products, control supply chains, bring together high-functioning teams and head industry leading organizations. Speakers at the event will dive into the topics of deep learning, robotics and cobotics, digital biology, additive manufacturing, nanotechnology and smart energy, among others.

Alongside emcee Will Weisman, Deloitte’s John Hagel will discuss how to innovate in a large organization. Ray Kurzweil will share his predictions for an exponential future. Neil Jacobstein will focus on the limitless possibilities of machine learning. Jay Rogers will share his learnings from the world of rapid prototyping. Hacker entrepreneur Pablos Holman will offer his perspective on what’s truly possible in today’s world. These innovators will be joined by John Werner (Meta), Valerie Buckingham (Carbon), Andre Wegner (Authentise), Deborah Wince-Smith (Council on Competitiveness), Raymond McCauley (Singularity University), Ramez Naam (Singularity University), Vladimir Bulović (MIT), and many others.
Now, more than ever, there is a critical need for companies to take new risks and invest in education simply to stay ahead of emerging technologies. At last year’s Exponential Manufacturing, Ray Kurzweil predicted, “In 2029, AIs will have human levels of language and will be able to pass a valid Turing test. They’ll be indistinguishable from human.” At the same event, Neil Jacobstein said, “It’s not just better, faster, cheaper—it’s different.”
There’s little doubt we’re entering a new era of global business, and the manufacturing industry will help lead the charge. Learn more about our Exponential Manufacturing summit, and join us in Boston this May. As a special thanks for being a Singularity Hub reader, use the code SUHUB2017 during the application process to save up to 15% on current pricing.
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Technology has long been considered a resource-liberating mechanism, granting us better access to resources like information, food and energy. Yet what is often overlooked is the revolutionary impact technology can have on our ability to create art.
Many artists are reacting to a world of accelerating change and rapid digitization through their work. Emerging artistic mediums like 3D printing, virtual reality and artificial intelligence are providing artists with unprecedented forms of self-expression. Many are also embracing the rise of intelligent machines and leveraging the man-machine symbiosis to create increasingly powerful works of art. In fact, advances in robotics and AI are challenging the very definition of what it means to be an artist: creating art is no longer exclusive to human beings.
Revolutionary forms of self-expression
Artists’ styles and identities have always been influenced by the eras they live in. Today, technology is pushing the boundaries of creativity and sensory experience.
Some artists are using digital tools to engage their viewers in the artistic experience. Described as a “new artistic language,” Chris Milk’s “The Treachery of Sanctuary” is a stunning example of digital art. The installation uses projections of the participants’ own bodies to explore the creative process through digital birds, hence allowing participants to interact with the work and undergo a captivating experience. Without participants, the work of art is incomplete.

Artist Eyal Gever is notable for writing algorithms of “epic events” and then 3D printing them with the world’s largest 3D printer. Gever believes that by using code and 3D printing, he can bring to life sculptures of explosions or waterfalls that would be impractical to produce by hand.
In fact, Gever is collaborating with NASA and Made In Space on his latest project, #Laugh, to create a visualization of human laughter. This groundbreaking installation will be 3D printed on the International Space Station to become the first piece of artwork ever to be produced in space.
Clearly, artists are no longer limited by traditional tools like paint, stencils or sculptures—they push their expressive urges and create increasingly immersive experiences.
And what could possibly be a more immersive experience than virtual reality?
Matteo Zamagni’s “Nature Abstraction” takes viewers on a virtual meditation-like experience through vast never-ending geometric and fractal patterns. Zamangi says he wants to “show the audience something that is normally invisible to our perceptions, but may be visible otherwise.”

Virtual reality could allow artists themselves to create art in a virtual space. Google Tilt Brush is a program that allows users, regardless of artistic background or experience, to create works of art in a three-dimensional virtual space. Described as “a new perspective in painting,” the Tilt Brush interface allows endless possibilities of artistic production.

As exponentially growing tools like 3D printing and virtual reality become faster, cheaper and more accessible, we will see more renowned and amateur artists turn to them to create, express and capture their imaginations.
Re-defining the artist
Creativity and artistic expression have been considered features exclusive to human intelligence. One of the biggest criticisms of intelligent machines is that they lack the ability to “imagine” and “think” beyond their programming. Soon that may no longer be the case.
Experts are attempting to program intelligent machines that create works of art.
In June 2016, Google launched Magenta, a crowd-sourced research project that explores the use of machine learning in AI to create different forms of art, including music and visuals. Magenta will create interfaces and platforms that will allow artists with no coding or AI experience to use these tools to create their own work.
Beyond this, Magenta could potentially program machines that will produce works of art on their own, without the influence of human artists. In many other similar projects, researchers are utilizing deep learning techniques to allow AI to create music inspired by the works of Johann Bach, create music inspired by the Beatles or write mournful poetry. Their creations are uncanny.
As tech re-defines art, new questions will come up. Who is the real artist, for example, the programmers that coded the AI or the AI itself? Are the visual productions of Google’s AI a work of self-expression or a coincidental byproduct of complex algorithms? Can a machine really “express” itself if it isn’t conscious? Can robot artists, such as Paul, the Robot, be considered creative without the capacity to truly imagine and reflect on their creative output?

But perhaps none of these questions matter. Maybe what matters is not the artist but the viewer. As British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor says, “The work itself has a complete circle of meaning and counterpoint. And without your involvement as a viewer, there is no story.”
Disrupting the art world
Technology has not only resulted in more accessible tools for the production of art but has also accelerated the process by which art is funded, marketed and distributed.
In the age of the internet and an increasingly connected world, the impact of an artist is no longer bound by the physical limitations of gallery. Access to art and the production or distribution tools required to leave your artistic mark are no longer exclusive to the elite or the exceptionally talented. With powerful platforms like social media and crowd-funding campaigns, today’s artists can market their innovative work to the world at a low cost.
At the end of the day, to produce our imagination is an innately human act. All of us have the yearning to express ourselves, whether through words, visuals or music. As new mediums of self-expression are made more accessible to all of us, the creative possibilities are infinite.
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