5 Game-Changing Questions Every Academic Leader Needs to Ask
As an academic leader, you’ve heard the call for innovation. But thriving in today’s challenges doesn’t come from having all the answers—it starts with asking the right questions.
These five essential questions will empower your team, spark creativity, and drive meaningful change.
What is fundamental here?
Where are we at?
Where do we want to go?
What if…?
How might we get there?
What is fundamental here? (BIG questions)
Every endeavor seems to have a set of fundamental questions that need to be asked. This type of question helps us explore the “why?” beneath the surface and understand the deep ideas, fundamental concepts, and core beliefs that influence ourselves and our work. These BIG questions remind us of our place in the landscape, why we exist, and what is so important about the work we do?
Where are we at? (Questions to Understand)
When a creative leader asks this question, we are just trying to learn more about our current reality. It’s about context. We are trying to see the systems and understand the structures. We want to know why and how we got to this point.
Too many leaders don't bother asking for an explanation, or they are afraid to ask. They simply accept current reality and don’t really understand it. But, if we want to move past our current reality, we have to know it. We need to ask enough questions to understand our starting point and how it relates to the vision we seek to create.
Where do we want to go? (Vision-based questions)
After we have a solid understanding of current reality, our questions should be about vision. What is our vision? Do we have a clear idea of what we want? Do we know where we are headed?
If you suspect or find out that the vision is not clearly defined, you can ask questions to help form the vision. Usually these are questions about the end user. Who are we really designing for? What do they want? How can we meet their needs, etc.?
What if…? (Question the Status Quo)
This is a beautiful question! - because you are engaging the imagination. What if we created…? What if we moved…? What if we built…? What if we brought in…?
When you ask a what if question, you are questioning the status quo. It is important to question the status quo, the premise, and the context. These kinds of “What if?” questions help us understand what could be.
How might we get there? (Challenge questions)
“How” questions lead us to a plan or a path forward. As leaders we might be tempted to tell our team what to do. But that is no way to strengthen their imagination or improve their creative skills. A better way is to provide a challenge or prompt that:
lays out the issue that needs to be solved
describes the parameters that group members are working under
and invites them to apply their imagination to the project.
Lead for Innovation
Creative thinkers are curious and so they ask questions. Their questions start with “why?”, move to “what?”, and finally to “how?” I wrote a whole chapter on asking the right questions in my book. You can read more here! (chapter 18, p.213)
By asking these five questions regularly, academic leaders can unlock their team’s potential and set the stage for meaningful progress. When leaders like you foster curiosity and collaboration, you create environments where innovation will thrive!
- Written by: Scott J. Wakefield, Founder
P.S.
Questions to inspire innovation do not stop when the challenge has been laid out. Hundreds of additional questions should be posed throughout the process of reaching the vision. They should come from anyone on the team. What if? What else? Did we think about this? Why did that work? What idea resonates with you? What story do you want your end user to tell?
P.S.S.
Here is a word of caution. Poorly designed or poorly timed questions can be disruptive to the creative process. It is important to sense where the team is at in their process. Start by asking questions that provide you with context into the status of the project. Once you have a clear idea of the progress that has been made, you can avoid questions that are no longer relevant. It is likely that some things have already been decided and the team has moved on.