We often forget to ask fundamental questions, especially, “Why?” and “Why not?” Children have that ability to ask the most searching, “Why?” and “Why not?” questions, and all without an element of prejudice. We seem to lose it as we grow up–society (which includes ourselves) teaches us to stop asking such questions. Instead, we make assumptions, we develop stereotypes, and when it comes to using our analytical leadership intelligence, since we think we already know, we neglect to ask the fundamental questions.Here’s an exercise:I was reading a book with my six-year old daughter. The book’s called Fire on Toytown Hill and is written by Jenny Giles. A fire truck finds it cannot put out the fire on a hillside and radios a helicopter for assistance. The helicopter arrives and puts out the fire with a barrel of water.Here are two pictures from that book–the first one shows the helicopter arriving and the second one shows it pouring the water. Before I tell you the question my daughter asked, I’d like you to look at the two pictures and think of some fundamental “Why?” or “How? questions.

My daughter had the following fundamental question:

“The helicopter and the bucket it’s carrying are the same in both pictures. Why is the helicopter not dropping water from the bucket in the first picture also?”

Flummoxed for a moment, I told her that perhaps there was a remote switch which is not shown in the picture, and that it was likely that the switch would open the bottom of the bucket.But, I must confess that her question is one that did not enter my mind. Since then, I have shown these pictures to some of my friends (all adults), and none of them has been able to come up with that particular question-or any similar fundamental question.We assume a lot, and that blocks our questioning process, a process that is at the beginning of our analysis of any situation. To be leaders, we must seek to go beyond assumptions and stereotypes.