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Van Phillips askedthree questions

that changed the world.You can ask them too.

Whati,f youfound thatcreative genius does not lie

in knowing all of the answers?

ChasingBeautiful

t# il*.,*; i #; r .-;

desperat e,beautzful, questt on

I first came uponVan Phillips and his

when I saw a small news item about how peoplewho had lost one orboth legs were usingadvanced prosthetic limbs that enabledthemto run and jump normally. Who createdsuchanamazhry d,eui,ce?, I wondered. This question,and the ones that followed, would change thedirection ofmylife.

In the summer of 1976, Phillips was a youngbroadcast major in college. A handsome andathletic 21-year-old, he was water-skiing on alake in Arizona when a fire broke out on the boatpullinghim. Inthe confusion, theboatt driverfailed to see another motorboat rounding a curvein the lake, headed straight at Phillips.

He awoke the next morning in a hospital. Ashe recalls, "I did the proverbial'I don t want tolook, but let's see."'Liftingthe blanket, he saw anempty place where his left foot should have been.The other boat's propeller had severed his leg6 inches below the knee. Hospital stafffltted himwith a standard prosthetic; Phillips describes itas "a pink foot attachedto an aluminum tube."He left the hospital with instructions: \d/alk on ittwice a dayto toughenup the stump. One ofthefi.rst times he tried to walk on the foot, he trippedon a pebble the size of a pea. And he knew, rightthen, this was notgoingto work forhim.

"Van, you'rejust going to have to learn to acceptthis," his girlfriendt father toldhim.

"I bit my tongue," Phillips recalls. "I knew hewas right, in a way. I did have to accept that I wasan amputee-but I wouldnot accept the fact that Ihad to wear this foot."

And then he asked a question that wouldchange the world of prosthelics: If they canput aman onthe moon, whg can't they make abetterfoot?

It was a good question. But it did not become abeautiful question-one that leads to inventionand profound change-until Phillips changed apronoun. Gradually he found himself takingownership of the question. Instead of asking,Ifi\tyc an' t they m ahe a b ett er fo ot, he aske d, Whg c anT I?

Abandoning his broadcasting career plans,he transferred to Chicago's Northwestern Uni-versity, which offers one of the top programs inprosthetics engineering. His journey of inquirv

would extract lessons from the animal kingdom,the local swimming pool, and the battlefi.elds ofancient China. Andalongthe way,he wouldfacethe skepticism of experts-the ones who alreadyhad allthe answers.

LL pHTLLIPS HAD was questions:Whg are theg using w o o d when other,more promising matertals are auatl-able? Why do they se em to be more

c onc ern e d w ith ae sth etic s (try ing, unsuc c e s sfullg,t o mi,mic th e Io oh of a hum an fo o t) th an w ith p e ffi r -mance?Hislack of answers provedto be abless-ing. Experts tend to be disinclined to questionthings-after all if you already "know," why ask?But as Phillips immersed himselfin technicaltraining, he continuedto question the prevailingassumptions of that fi.eld.

He also began to look outside the world ofprosthetics for fresh ideas and influences. Thespring-force power of a swimming-pool divingboard made him think there might be somethingin its physics for him. Studying animal legmovements, he saw thatthe powerfultendonsinthe hind legs ofa cheetah exhibited interdstinospring-force dynamics, too. An antique Chinesesword ofhis fathert also drewhis attentioru itscurvedblade was strongerand more flexible thana straight one.

Overthe years, these findings took himfromWhy? to What ffi He eventually asked, What ifa p r o sth e tic l;i,mb c o uI d b om o w s om e of the dg namicqual:ities of a che etah's Ie g? What if it had no heel andno ri,ght angles-jwt a curued,, C-shapedblade?

Those What iflsquickly led to How? U singcarbon graphite, he created rudimentary modelsof a prosthetic limb-a couple hundred overthecourse ofa decade. He tested each one by attach-ingitto his own stump, standing on it, and thenattempting to run. Inevitably, the prototypewould collapse and send Phillips tumbling to theground. But instead ofgiving up, he respondedwith more inquiry' What didl do wrong this ti,me?How c an I mahe it b etter nent time?

One day, Phillips got the answer he wasseeking. He put on the newest version of the foot.

70 SPIRITAPRIL2Ol4

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He stood. Heran. Andhe foundhimself stillstanding. Phillips' Flex-Foot limb-which pavedthe way forthe later development ofthe famous"Cheetah" blade-revolutionized prosthetics' Apersonwith an artiflcialleg and foot could nowrun, jump, and even compete on an Olympic level,as double-amputee runner Oscar Pistorius did in2012. For Phillips, the impact hit closer to home.Using his own creation, he was able to return toone of his great passions inlife, running-whichhe does every morning to this day.

AN PHILLIPS, STONY_ANd iNparticular, his indomitable spirit ofinquiry-changed the way I thinkabout questions. I've learnedthat

they can do more than make conversationinteresting: Questions can transform the worldas we know it-ifthey're the kinds of ambitiousand "beautiful" questions that Phillips asked.

What is abeautiful question? It's one that chal-Ienges assumptions, considers newpossibilities,and has potential to serve as a catalyst for actionand change. It's not easy to pose such queries in aworld of facile answers and hard realities. But asI began to look beyond Phillips' story and combedthrough some ofthe breakthrough ideas andinnovations that have reworkedthe waywe liveinrecentyears,I found that many ofthem origi-nated with someone questioning the existing,accepted way of doing things.

Through questioning, "we can organize ourthinking around what we donit know," saysSteve Quatrano of the Right Question Institute,a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nonprofltdedicated to studying and teaching effectivequestioning. A question is like aflashlightthatwe shine into the darkness, allowing us to moveforward into the unknown and uncertain. And asthe philosopher Bertrand RusseII once remarked,"In all affairs it's a healthythingnow andthen tohang a question mark on the things you have longtaken for granted."

Yet one ofthe things we take forgranted isquestioning itselfl perhaps because itt so appar-ently easy that ayoung child can do it-profusely,in fact. One study found that 4-year-old girlsask more than 3oo questions a day; anotherdiscovered that, on average, a child asks 4o,oooquestions betweenthe ages of 2 and 5.

Forvarious reasons, we tend to ask fewer andfewer questions as we mature; a kindergartnerthundreds ofqueries have allbut stoppedby highschool. Schools tend to discourage them, and

72 SPlRtTApRrr2014

Questions That CanChange Your LifeInnovators often go throughthese three questions,repeatingthe cyclemany times before gettinga brilliant answer.

This quesfion lels youconfronl a problem,arliculale lhe challenge

at hand, and try to understand il betler.Why does a porticulor situslion exisl?Why doesit present a problem? WhY

hqs no one addressed lhis problem?

While whyqueslionshelp us understandour presenl realily,

whotif queslions help us envision whalmighl be. What if I come ol this problemfrom o different direction?Whot if ltrysome combinotion of X ondY?Whot if Iborrow on idea from on unreloted area?

Now you begin to turnspeculalion into reality.How questions lend to

be praclicaland aclionable. Howcon Igetthis done? How might ltoke the firslsteps? lf my ideo isn't working, how conI figure oul what's wrong ond fix it?

students get graded more for their answers thanfortheir questions. Bosses get impatient whentheir workers ask too many questions, especiallyones that ehallenge their assumptions. We stopasking out of fear of looking foolish. Or we simplywant to get things done in our lives-who hastime to pause and question? But after I spoke withPhillips, I wondered, \\rhat if we d;i'dn't stop ques'tioning? What if w e kept ashi'ng why and what if?

So I decidedto ask some of the most creativeand successful people in the U.S. not what theyknew, but what questions they asked themselves.Mythree years of inquiringinto inquirybeganin Silicon Valley, where the startup mentalitysees questioning as a key to innovation rather

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BAGXTOBASICSln his homeworkshop, PhilliPsconlinues to askhimself, "How canI help amPuteeswalk again?"

thanas athreatto corporate hierarchy. I talkedtoscientists, inventors, and basement tinkerers as

weII as artists whose work pursues big questions.I found teachers and education groups trying toencourage more questioning in schools and socialactivists trying to reframe the questions at thecore of our biggest global problems.

While every "master questioner" I met hadaunique approachto inquiry, I discoveredcommon threads-the basics of Questioning 1o1,

if you will. To question well and productivelyrequires stepping back from habits, assumptions,and familiar thoughts; listening to and closelyobserving the world aroundyou; being unafraidto ask naive or fundamental questionsi and being

willing to stay with the questions as you endeavorto understandand act on them.

Master questioners like Van Phillips ask ques-tions like Whg isn't this si'tuation w orking as well as

it might? What if I (or we) were to change it in some

way? How might we begin to d'o that? Andtheyoften do so in a sort ofprogression. They tend tomove from curious Whg questions to speculativeWhatif ones, eventually working their way tomore practical, action-orient ed How questions.

As I studied the ways Phillips and othersapplied rigorous, step-by-step inquiry to the chal-lenges they faced,I couldn't help doing likewise.At the time, I was dealing with uncomfortablechanges anduncertainties in my own life andwork. The recent death of my father hadleft avoid. My work-writing articles and occasionalof-the-moment books-didn't seem to be leadingto anything larger. I wanted to work on some-thing more meaningful with more of an impacton people's lives. But I wasn't sure howto findthatnewpath.

The answer, I found, lies in questions-beauti-ful questions. As a journalist, I had been askingquestions ofotherpeople foryears. But asking

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It Startedwitha

QuestionSome ofthe

world's coolest(orjustplain

indispensable)inventionsbeganwith

aboldinquiry. qu:snox:n MarlinCooper, generalmanagerof Motorola'scommunicalionssyslems division

rlrEsroRY lnspiredby a Slor lrek scenewhere captain Kirkuses a mobile "com-municator" lo speakwilh a crew member,Cooperworked wilha team to developlhe DynaTAC 8000X,a hand-held phoneweighing 28 ounces.0n April 3, L973,Cooper made lhefirst public callfromamobilephone.

them of myself? Not so much. I think this is truefor many of us: W'e arenjt comfortable askingourselves questions forwhich we may not haveeasyanswers. Yet Phillips taught me thatwhenfaced with disruption anduncertainty, we needto be willing to question. I began to ask, lVhgram Ifeeling d,issatisfi,ed wi,th my work? Ifihat if Ic o uld shifi t o w ar d s o m e thin g m o r e me an:tngful an dIong-temn, on an issue that seems releu ant in thesechanging times? How might lfind something li,hethat?Of course, it was right undermy nose. Thequestions themselves were the answer.

Gradually, through subsequent inquiry, Ibeganto flgure out how I might explore and

. pursue the subject of questioningin a mannerthat went beyond my usual modus operandiof writing about something and then quicklymoving on to the next story. I came up with abeautiful question that I was willing to commit

74 SPIRITAPRIL2014

QUESTIOilCRMary Anderson,businesswoman

rrrsronvOne winler,whilevisiting NYC,

Anderson saw a

lrolley operatorkeeping his wind-shield open so hecould see lhrough therain and snow. Backhome in Alabama, shecreated a manuallypowered contraplionthat a driver couldcontrolfrom wilhinthe vehicle lo move arubber blade acrossthe window. Andersonwas granted a patenlforherwindshieldwiper in late t903.

to and spend time with: flow rnight I encourageother s t o question more?

Already, it has led me out of my comfortzoneandinto new areas.I began to changethe waylworked, becoming more collaborative. I enlisted agroup ofvolunteer researchers to help track downstories ofbeautiful questions: I alsojoined forceswith the Righi Question Institute-the smallgroup offellowpioneers onthe frontier of explor-ing questioning-and together we asked lloaomight w efind way s to brt ng more andbetter Et estion-ing into schools, busi,nesses, and gouernment orga-nizatiora? Inthe grandest sense, we're endeavor-ingto promotemore euriosityand questions in aworldthat seemsto needitmore than ever.

That's a dauntilg mission; at times I feel terri-fyingly and gloriously in over my head. But thequestions I asked myselfkeep beckoning, andI'II follow where they take me. Meanwhile, my

qursrlonrn PercySpencer, self-taughtinvenlorand engineer

rxrsronvSpencer, anemployee of defensecontractor RaytheonCompany duringWWll,workedwilhmagnetron lubes,which were used inradar.One day, henoliced a chocolalebar in his pocket hadmehed while he sloodnexl lo an aclive sel.With popcorn kernels,he confirmed a hunchlhallhe microwave-emilling magnelronhad heated the candy.ln 0ctober 1945,Raytheon patentedthemicrowaveoven. lt was nearly6 feet tall and weighed750 pounds.

eursrroxrn JenniferLand,3-year-olddaughterof inventorEdwin Land

rlrrsronvEdwin Landwas on vacalion inSanta Fe, New Mexico,when his impalientchild piped up wilhthis queslion. Land, a

self-taught physicistand a Harvard drop-out, didn't have ananswer, so he wenton a walk throughlown lo ponder herquery. Wilhin an hour,heU conceived ofthebasic mechanics of aninslant camera. ThePolaroidLandCamerawentonlhe market in 1948.

quEsTlor{ER NormanWoodland, gradstudent at Drexellnstitute of Technology

rxssronv Woodlandwas looking for a wayto aulomate super-market checkouts.(A friend had over-heard the president ofa local grocery chaindiscussing the topicwith a dean al Drexel.)Afler a few failedatlempls, Woodlanddrew on his childhoodexperience as a BoyScoul and lurned lhedots and dashes ofMorse code into verti-cal lines of varyingwidths-thus crealingthebarcode.

gursr*aroen DwayneDouglas, assislanlfoolball coach al theUniversity of Florida

runsranv Douglashad good reason tobe concerned: Hisplayers were droppingup lo 18 pounds in agame and weren'llaking any balhroombreaks. He talkedto Roberl Cade, aUF kidney-diseasespecialist. Cade andhis team concocteda formula that wouldrestore lhe walerand electrolyteslhal were being lostin sweal. Today,we know the drinkasGatorade.

beautiful question has given me a new senseof direction and purpose.

ouLD A BEAUTIFUL question do thesame for you? And where might youflndyour question? You could startbylooking at your interests and passions.

Ask yourself about what moves you, what youcare deeply about, what you feel you were meantto do. Look for a problem that needs solvingin your business, community or family. Your

beautiful question may involve something rightin front of you-you may need to step backmentallyto tryto see the familiar from a differentangle and in a new light.

Ifyoufind something crying out forimprove-ment, innovation, and fresh thinking, startexploring with rahgr questions, and then workyour way to uhat if and.how questions. IIou isusuallythe hard part; ultimately that's whereyour beautiful question may lie. When phrasinghotu questions, here's a helpful tip I learned frommaster questioners at companies such as Googleandthe designfirm IDEO: Tryusingthe wordsHow might I (instead ofElou can I or How should I).The "might" offers a great way to phrase a ques-tion that is open and expansive yet still practical.

When you find your beautiful question, be pre-pared to own it and to live with it. We are used togetting quick answers on Google, but abeautifulquestion calls for a very different kind ofsearch.You may have to follow it into unfamiliar places,grapple with it, and change it over time. You ll beimitating Einstein, who said, "Itt not that I'm sosmart. But I stay with the questions much longer."

VanPhillips certainlyhas. TodaJL almost 4oyears after he flrstbeganto inquire about creat-ing a better prosthetic foot, he still pursues thesame question-in a revised, updated form. Nowin his late gos, Phillips works at his home in acoastal village near Mendocino, California. Hekeeps his tools in an armoire and oftentoils neara large window overlooking the ocean. His latestworkbegan with the realizationthat, after all theaccolades, his creation had provided an answerfor some but not others. So he cycled through thequestions once more:

Whg does thefoot haue to cost so muchto make?W hat if it c o uld b e m a d e s o that land-mine u i ctim s

in p o orer nations c ould, affor d, it?How might I tweah the design to allow for this,

w ithout compr omising p erformanc e?He has developed a new answer and hopes to

soon solve the puzzle of distributingit worldwide.Still, as Phillips can tell you, answers have a wayof becoming insufflcient or obsolete over time.Onlythe question endures.

Warren Berger's lalest book, A llore Beauliful Question: The Power of lnquiry to Spsrk Breokthrough/deos, was published in March by Bloomsbury. Berger writes regularly for Fost Company andHarvard Business Review, and he has appeared on the lodoyShowand NPR'sA llThings Considered.BloombergBusihessweek named his first book ,Glimmer,oneof lhe best innovation books of 2009.Learn more aboul creative queslioning al amorebeautifulquestion.com and rightquestion.org.

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