"We seem to have come to a phase in civilisation marked by a voracious appetite for knowledge, in which the growth of information is exponential and, perhaps more important, its availability easier and faster than ever" Prof. Firestein (who teaches at University of Columbia not only a course on Neuroscience but one on Ignorance) remarks. Both, business and our education system, have a thirst for collecting and accumulating facts, mistakenly assuming that knowing the answers is the source of power.
The cult of expertise obscures the very capacity for cultivating a thirst for ignorance
Dylan Wiliam on How to ask better Questions wrote: "It has been estimated that in an average career a teacher will ask over a million questions, the vast majority of which they know the answer to!
Far too many of these are lower order questions which simply require factual recall. These kind of questions may keep pupils awake but they do not help them to learn anything new."
If we want to ReNEW instead we must re-educate ourselves to ask different questions in profound devotion to ignorance and inquiry (and self-inquiry). These are questions not to validate what we already know but to open up to new learnings.
It is here that art (heART) comes to restore and re-educate.
"Be patient toward all the unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions". Rilke
We need to learn how to inquire instead of just informing people of what we’re doing. We need to learn how to ask questions that help us understand. True inquiry begins by questioning our assumptions and beliefs about why things are the way they are. If we want to un-leash the power of inquiry we must first create a safe and conducive space for it. There is no point of asking questions when people do not feel safe in answering “I do not know” honestly. One of the simplest (and hardest) thing we can do to support this process is learning how to listen (you can read here more about it). Inquiry should serve more as a source for reflection than just as a mere tool for seeking answers.
George Bernard Shaw said: “Science is always wrong, it never solves a problem without creating 10 more.”
I particularly love asking "what if" questions. These become portals, doorways to dialogue. Only through inquiry and dialogue we can grasp the meaning of our work (and life). When we think, act and feel like an heARTist, we enter into a deeper dialogue with the world and allow a NEW way of being in business. These are some of the questions I (a self proclaimed business heartist) like to ask to my clients:
Who do you need to become to transform your experience of work into a more humane one?
What is the experience you want to have and give while you do what you do?
How do you grow the well-being of an organization and of the individuals within an organization?
What questions would you ask if you were the heARTist of your work? How your human experience of work would change?
RNEWB offers a robust diversity of experiences, talks, workshops and programs that use storytelling, poetry and heARTistry in an innovative and yet practical methodology that has helped leaders and teams to reach their goals, tap into their creativity, broaden their awareness and improve trust within the organisations they lead. For more information please feel free to get in contact.