Smart Questions Learn to Ask the Right

Smart Questions offers an entirely new framework for creating solutions. Drawn from the authors' many years of research and field experience, the Smart Questions Approach reveals how the leading creators of solutions in almost every profession and walk of life-including business, government, education, and even in families-think and approach their assignments. The author's holistic thinking approach shows how to use three "foundation" questions-focusing on uniqueness, purposeful information, and systems-which must be explored for every problem. These three questions, an essential starting point for exploring problems, in turn lead to other key questions that will ultimately create effective solutions.

Gerald Nadler is president of the Center for Breakthrough Thinking Inc., an international firm of consulting affiliates promoting Smart Questions and other planning and solution-finding approaches. He is also IBM Chair Emeritus in Engineering Management at the University of Southern California. Nadler has written over two hundred published articles and fourteen books, including the second edition of Breakthrough Thinking: The Seven Principles of Creative Problem Solving (with Shozo Hibino, Prima Publishing, 1994), a first-edition selection of the Fortune Book Club, Book-of-the-Month Club, Newbridge Book Club, FastTrack Best Business Books on Tape, and one of Computerworld's Best Books of 1990.

William J. Chandon is a vice president of the Center for Breakthrough Thinking and teaches management at St. Mary’s College. He has over fifteen years’ experience in the fields of organizational development and business transformation and has consulted with many and varied government, non-profit, and commercial businesses from many industries.

Preface xi

1 Introducing the Smart Questions Approach: Moving Beyond Problem Solving to Creating Solutions 1

2 SQA Phase 1: Getting People Involved 43

3 SQA Phase 2: Selecting a Focus Purpose 87

4 SQA Phase 3: Creating an Ideal Future Solution 132

5 SQA Phase 4: Building a Living Solution for Today and Tomorrow 180

6 The Power of SQA: Two Case Studies 230

7 SQA in Organizations and Society 264

References 283

Acknowledgments 285

The Authors 287

Index 289

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Smart Questions Learn to Ask the Right Questions for Powerful Results

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials