Simple questions start with humility: None of us has all the answers, nor can we find them all. The list of the world’s challenges is long and yes, complex. Covid-19 persists. Too many people around the world go to bed hungry. Climate change is an existential threat. Too many women and people of color are left out or behind. These issues have multiple layers and many stakeholders. If you want to solve these sorts of challenges, asking simple questions can help.
Asking simple questions was a lesson I took away from my time at the Gates Foundation, where my work on vaccines started with the simple question:
What does it cost to immunize one child?
In addition to humility, you can use the following steps to ask simple questions:
- Ask what bothers you about the world. Big goals come from big feelings.
- Start with a fresh sheet of paper. What problem do you want to try to solve? What is holding you or your organization back from evolving, growing, or changing in a necessary way? What is preventing you or your organization from flourishing?
- Find the root cause. What is the single biggest factor preventing change?
- Do the math again. What are you trying to change? How many people does that affect? What is the best way to help them? What does that cost to achieve? How does that compare with current resources available?
- Use a magic wand. Ask those who are unsure of or resistant to change outright what they would do to fix things if, say, they had a magic wand.
From the book:
To get to a solution, you need to be fearlessly willing to start with a blank sheet of paper and fill it by asking and answering simple, even naïve-seeming questions. Those simple questions have the incredible power to cut through complexity, reorient thinking, open possibilities, and reveal previously hidden paths.