Warren Berger is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, and the author of both A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas and Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life, and Maybe Even the World, both of which drew critical praise. Berger also writes for Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and has previously written extensively for Wired. He has appeared on NBC’s The Today Show, ABC World News, CNN, and NPR’s All Things Considered. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado, and has lectured at the University of Virginia, University of Oregon, University of Texas, New York’s School of Visual Arts, and Virginia Commonwealth University. He is an expert on design thinking and innovation.

As a guest on Innovation Navigation, Berger spoke in depth about the manner and power of correctly questioning. As children, we question everything around us, but we start to question less and less as we grow older. Successful innovation necessarily involves asking not just ‘why’ but also ‘what-if’ and then finally, ‘how?’. This is not simply a matter for individual entrepreneurs, however. Berger spoke about how successful companies are and will continue to be those that cultivate an environment of questioning, in which employees feel comfortables asking management why things are as they are, but also feel comfortable doing so even when they do not have an answer to their own question. On a more personal note, he discussed how individuals ask themselves questions to help understand themselves, their motivations, and their plans for the future.