cover image The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead

The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead

Warren Berger. Bloomsbury, $27 (288p) ISBN 978-1-63286-956-2

Journalist Berger (A More Beautiful Question) repackages familiar business advice for the inquisitive and the reflective. The author, who considers himself a “questionologist,” guides professionals to think deeply about how they can use questions to improve decision making and to inspire creativity, connect with others, and cultivate leadership skills. He believes that the urge to question is gradually socialized out of people as children, when they’re praised for the “right” answer and scolded for the “wrong” one, even though questions are the best way to develop ideas and goals. As to how to foster a “questioning habit,” he advises, “Try to ask at least one naive question before noon tomorrow.” The questions range from the concrete to the lofty, and sometimes include the hackneyed. These are interesting enough thought exercises to help readers in a rut, but as a whole, this is just a run-of-the-mill leadership book with slightly different framing, offering questions instead of answers. Introspective readers, or readers who feel like they can’t get off the hamster wheel, will find this helpful; others will feel they’ve read it all before. [em](Oct.) [/em]