That fear signaled some kind of new frontier, which would be rich with great material.

“There are people who subsist in the status quo,” Jim said. “These are the people who see the numbers, they’re meeting the numbers, and life is good, so they don’t need to change anything. But if you want to be truly innovative, what my research suggests is that this is not the correct approach. If you truly want to innovate and change, you need to

“UNLEARN” in black letters, a nod to Scott’s belief that we should unlearn hatred and prejudice and treat each other with respect.

you’re going to think for yourself, you’ll have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Your goals, metrics, budget, headcount, timeline, and more—they all create a set of limitations, a sort of box within which you might actually be more creative. To do so, however, you need to understand the walls of that box.

When we act like investigators, we also question our bosses, our clients, our peers—even ourselves and the things we assume we know.

When we ask good confirmation questions, we ensure we’re on the right path toward our goals when we take action. That’s the entire point: turning better thinking into better action.

Just think: If our goal is to be different, our next question becomes, “Different from whom?” The competition. However, if our goal is to be refreshing, the next question is, “Refreshing to whom?”

It’s one thing to question a best practice in our minds. It’s an entirely different matter to act on it.