CM 126: Hal Gregersen on Why Questions are the Answer

What if the secret to getting unstuck isn’t the right answer, but the right question?

Hal Gregersen, author of the book, Questions are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life, came to this conclusion after interviewing over 200 high-impact leaders. Through these conversations, he learned they were asking a different kind of question, one he calls catalytic. In this interview, he explains that these kinds of questions “…challenge an assumption that is fundamentally false in a way that provides me and perhaps others around me energy and motivation to do something about it.”

Along the way, Hal’s found that these kinds of questions can help us get unstuck in all aspects of our lives. For example, Hal shares the story of a leader lamenting the distance he feels in his relationship with a teenage daughter. After spending just four minutes on a catalytic questioning activity called a “question burst,” this same leader made a starting realization: “At the beginning of the conversation…I was so focused on how to not lose her…But I was asking the wrong question. I really need to figure out how to help her grow and flourish…[to] let her find her.”

Hal is the Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and a senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He’s authored or co-authored ten books, including the bestseller, The Innovator’s DNA with Clay Christensen and Jeff Dyer.

Episode Links

Andreas Heinecke and Dialogue in the Dark

Using Catalytic Questioning to Solve Significant Problems by Hal Gregersen

Sociologist Amitai Etzioni

Debby Sterling and Goldieblox

More information on question bursts in this HBR article by Hal

The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson

Video clip of Ed Catmull explaining Pixar’s Brain Trust

Creative Clarity by Jon Kolko

Lior Div and Cybereason

Video clip of Jeff Wilke

Walt Bettinger

Marc Benioff

Bea Perez

Room 13

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