Book Review Archives - Mental Laps

2018 Missouri S&T Athletic Hall of Fame Class

Even though I received the letter 4 months ago, I am still surprised to be here today. It’s quite humbling. Being an engineer and swimmer are a couple of the defining elements of who I am, so this honor feels like a combination of the two.

Nowhere else can I start than by thanking my parents. Their sacrifices, financially and emotionally, as well as nights, weekends and missed family vacations, are the reason I am standing up here. This honor is theirs more than anyone else. Thank you.

Also, I want to thank Doug Grooms and Mark Mullin. Coach Grooms doggedness in recruiting me was a key factor in landing here. With a limited budget, he maximizes the resources available and maintains a nationally ranked team year after year. During my time at UMR, Mark was head of the NCAA swim committee and kept swimming a priority at the Division 2 level. Student-athletes continue to benefit from his commitment to the sport and NCAA Interscholastic athletics in general.

I did not expect him to be here today, but I feel it also important to thank Keith Bailey. His continued financial support of the university has made this experience possible for countless students, including me. Along with a group of students, I was fortunate to meet him during my time in Rolla. He shared with us a story of accepting new challenges. My takeaway from that encounter is to embrace the new and unknown. In this era, many challenges we tackle are unprecedented, there are no right or wrong answers, we need to try, fail quickly, learn, and keep pushing forward.

I am also grateful for my teammates and those I was fortunate to help coach and recruit while I was here. Reflecting on the other swimmers that have preceded me in Hall of Fame induction, and those I expect are upcoming, it is hard for me to see how I measure up to the heights of their athletic accomplishments. Since finding out about this honor, I have reflected on how I got here and why I may have been selected.

Recently I read the allegory of Taoism by Benjamin Hoff, which helped to galvanize my perspective:

That doesn’t mean that the goals we have don’t count. They do, mostly because they cause us to go through the process, and it’s the process that makes us wise, happy, or whatever. If we do things in the wrong sort of way, it makes use miserable, angry, confused, and things like that. The goal has to be right for us, and it has to be beneficial, in order to ensure a beneficial process. But aside from that, it’s really the process that’s important. Enjoyment of the process is the secret that erases the myths of the Great Reward…Perhaps this can help to explain the everyday significance of…the Way.

During my time in Rolla, whether I was a student, athlete, teammate, researcher or assistant coach, I embraced and enjoyed the process. I hope that embracing the process is the legacy I left. The experience in Rolla and embracing the process has had an immeasurable influence on my life, for which I am forever grateful.

Thank you!

If you want to open your mind, value growth, or are curious about generating change and coming up with big ideas, then this book is one to consider. The book jumps in posing a number of thought-provoking questions, to prime the reader for the book’s intent. This hook was compelling to me and at only 272 pages, I was surprised how quickly it read.

The book frames a number of commonly recognized products and how they were developed by asking radical questions: Pandora, Cracker Jack’s, Salesforce, as well as the blade prosthetic foot, among others. The book offers up research and practical ways to generate questions. Do you want to tackle some tough questions? Then start with a few easy questions and progress to more difficult. Answering the easy questions helps open up your mind to tackling big ideas. ‘Big ideas’ is also a recurring theme throughout the book, as well as accessible strategies. One story shared a Questioners tactic: after creating a technology sabbath on Saturdays, she began saving questions to contemplate during this undistracted time.

After reading the book, my takeaway is that the author does an excellent job of transcending the purpose of questioning. A More Beautiful Question can be a guide for question thinking if you are a leader of an organization, a parent, or a thought worker. The ideas presented open up anyone to tackle question thinking, be it business challenges or personal obstacles. And the tools outlined apply at any scale, again, from, “How can I do this better,” to “What is our organization’s purpose in this world.”

Despite the book’s grand title, the message presented is clear, relatable and applicable to anyone who wants to break out of the answer routine and start thinking about questions whether

Further thoughts for Leaders

One of the realities posed by the author is business types. He shares that old line businesses, particularly in the US and western Europe, many of which were created after World War II and then run by those from World War II, were built on an organizational structure where leaders have answers and there is little room for questions. These environments will have the most opportunity, and challenge, for adapting the question mindset.

Having recently read The Multigenerational Sales Team by Warren Shiver and David Szen, A More Beautiful Question raised questions in my mind about the generational impact of being open to questions. Certainly, the book mentioned questioning as being a cultural taboo, in Asian countries for example, asking questions makes one appear they are not knowledgeable, so the idea of questioning is discouraged. Recognizing this limitation, companies have brought in consultants for the explicit purpose of asking, seemingly obvious, questions, because the organization is unable to ask those questions of themselves.

From a generational standpoint, the book raised concerns to me about the ability to gain traction with question thinking across generations. Millenials, and certainly Gen Z, having grown up with the ability to type Google a question whenever they want, are most comfortable with the questioning method. But what about Gen X? Prone to offering up rebuttals, would that discourage the questioning process? What about Baby Boomers and Traditionalists? They have existed in a top-down, hierarchical business world, where questions are the exclusive domain of the novice, and not asking questions is [incorrectly] linked to higher knowledge status.

It is an oversimplification and disservice to take this generational point too far. Every generation is made up of many individuals with varying levels at which they identify with their generation’s norms, across a continuous spectrum. As the leader of an organization, the generational consideration is a warning for how the embrace of question thinking can be approached.

And that’s what makes this book great. The author touches on other factors which contribute to openness for asking questions. For example, Silicon Valley is an incubator for asking questions and coming up with new, big ideas. Montessori schools and similar question-centric education systems are a breeding ground for question thinking. Even, being well traveled and having a broad, liberal arts, education, helps to ask questions. Having diverse interests and reading a wide range of topics, helps to generate questions. Writing, particularly journalism, is a great way to provoke the more beautiful question, which is particularly true for the author, Warren Berger, which is what started this journey for him.

Note: Cover Image from David Stern

Tag: Book Review

Missouri S&T Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Speech

Book Review: A More Beautiful Question

Further thoughts for Leaders