Here are the twelve questions that may help you deepen your insights into any idea.
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It's easy to think that thought leaders only source insights from their thoughts, the name Thought Leader is a bit of a misdirect. In reality, you will draw insights from all kinds of places. You might find them in your feelings, you might find them in your instincts, and yes, you might find them in your thinking. This week, I have been contemplating the questions you might use to workshop, extend, and deepen your insights as a thought leader.
Three questions we can ask as we start to gather our insights are:
- What do I think about this idea?
- How do I feel about the idea?
- What does my gut sense around this idea?
One of my early business coaches, Darren Shirlaw, taught me this idea as Think, Feel, and Know. I have leant on that for the longest time and only just recently identified the work of Carl Jung as the primary source for the head, heart, and gut frames. I would also like to propose an additional set of framing lenses: the first being the work of Dr. John Vervake out of Toronto University and his "Ways of Knowing" and the second being the Thought Leaders Curriculum's "contribution and contradiction" process.
Dr Vervake proposes in the four 'ways of knowing' that we can understand and share our ideas as propositions, procedures, perspectives, and what he defines as participatory knowing. This gives us four more questions I can use to access deeper insights into any idea:
- What am I proposing with this idea?
- How can I put that into a procedure?
- What alternate perspectives can I draw upon that reference this idea?
- How can I invite others to participate co-creatively in the development of this insight?
The third framing lens comes from our Thought Leaders Curriculum. When anyone who is oriented as a student discovers an idea they ask themself "How can I remember this idea?" A teacher might discover the same idea and ask "How can I share this idea?" A thought leader asks a different question. They ask quite simply "What do I think about this idea?" It is this third meta-question that allows thought leaders to extend and explore existing insights more deeply. When you discover an idea as a thought leader you can process the idea through a lens of contribution 'yes great idea and...' and/or contradiction 'yes great idea but...' The YES AND and YES BUT explorations then allow you to extend the thinking in any field of inquiry. The three primary questions then are:
- What do others think about this idea?
- How do I agree with this?
- How do I disagree with this?
Then check in with a primary question, "How does my lived experience add deeper or new insights to this idea?" And finally, I then ask myself the commercial question, "Who would value this idea?"
Here are the twelve questions as a 'procedure' that may help you deepen your insights into any idea.
The 12 Insightful Questions
- What do I think?
- How do I feel?
- What does my gut sense?
- What am I proposing?
- How can I put that into a procedure?
- What alternate perspectives can I draw on?
- How can I invite others to participate co-creatively in the development of this insight?
- What do others think about this idea?
- How do I agree with this idea?
- How do I disagree with this idea?
- How does my lived experience add deeper or new insights to this idea?
- Who would value this insight?
Keep deepening your thinking and sharing your insights.
If you want to capture, package, and deliver your thinking more effectively then get involved with us at Thought Leaders. Three ways you can do that:
- Download the THINK book with our compliments.
- Join our Foundation Program and start to study the Thought Leaders Curriculum for growing a commercial successful thought leadership practice.
- Enrol in our Business School and let me and the faculty team at Thought Leaders help you launch your commercially successful thought leaders practice.
Helping you be consciously commercial.
With Love
Matt Church
Founder