When we’re stuck with a problem we simply cannot solve, what we need is a great question.

The funny thing about a great question is that it is often hard to recognize.

It can feel slightly off topic.

Like a critique.

Or even downright irrelevant.

Like the person wasn’t fully hearing us and the core assumptions that we know to be true.

But sometimes, if we’re patient enough or stuck enough, we find ourselves sitting with a great question. It germinates in the back of our minds. We process it in the midst of doggedly re-treading the beaten path to our wrong answers.

And then, if we’re lucky, a eureka moment happens. We see something new. A door opens.

What that perfect question did was poke at the heart of a truth that wasn’t true, a strongly held assumption that was just plain wrong.

Suddenly, the impossible becomes possible.

We can’t predict when these moments will happen, but we can pay a bit more attention to off-beat questions before dismissing them.