Purpose & Principles | Episode 20 - Dr. Hal Gregersen -- Questions Are the Answer

While his biography is included here, let me just say how much I
enjoyed getting to know the man behind this conversation! Hal
Gregersen, I'm so grateful we're connected. Hal Gregersen,
PhD, is a senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at MIT’s
Sloan School of Management, former executive director of the MIT
Leadership Center, and a renowned expert on leadership,
innovation and creative culture–– dedicating his career to
helping companies stay ahead in an accelerating world by teaching
them how to implement a culture of inquiry and transform
themselves into innovative powerhouses.


Gregersen created a repeatable three-step methodology, the
Question Burst, by which companies can build better problem
solvers and enhance creative impact at all levels. The crux of
Gregersen’s argument is spelled out in his Nautilus award-winning
book (based on 200+ interviews with catalytic questioners like
Elon Musk and Orit Gadiesh),“Questions Are the Answer: A
Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in
Life” (Harper Collins, 2018). While people are programmed to look
for answers, the real catalyst for disruptive change is
questioning. Gregersen argues that leaders can deliberately
overhaul and transform cultures to habitually produce pioneering
breakthroughs. His Question Burst method, along with other habits
of productive inquiry, have helped redesign company cultures at
Chanel, Daimler, Danone, Disney·Pixar, Fidelity, Genentech,
Patagonia, Salesforce, and the World Economic Forum, among
others.


Gregersen also co-authored, with Clay Christensen and Jeff Dyer,
“The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive
Innovators” (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019), a guide to
cultivating the discovery skills that CEOs and entrepreneurs rely
on to build the most innovative companies in the world. Having
interviewed 100+ ground-breaking leaders at the world’s most
innovative companies, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and
Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, Gregersen draws on rigorous research
(based on a database of +15,000 leaders) to successfully advise
the world’s largest corporations on transformation challenges.


Ranked as one of the world’s 20 most influential management
thinkers by Thinkers50 and winner of the 2017 Distinguished
Achievement Award for leadership, Gregersen regularly delivers
thought-provoking, interactive keynotes and workshops and
transformational coaching experiences. Along with ten books,
Gregersen is the author of over fifty articles, book chapters,
and cases on leading innovation and change (with over 10,000
citations by other scholars). His research has been highlighted
in media such as BBC, CNN, The Economist, Fast Company, Financial
Times, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street
Journal. In 2020, Gregersen was named a Top 30 Global Guru.