The Art of Asking Questions
At the core of my profession lies the art of asking questions. People often come to me and ask me to implement a solution. But ever since I was mentored by Wim Stevens and Jan Ginneberge in 1993, I know that is not the right approach. Management’s black-box thinking is lethal because it prevents us from delving deeper and considering more solutions.
This is what I saw confirmed in the second module of CEBMA’s course on evidence-based management. But here’s the thing: questions allow us to discover the assumptions that underlie a certain preference. Whenever a customer wants something, there is a belief, a model, at the root of the question.
I hear you saying that this is just a consultancy rick to sell more days or to make the problem bigger. But we would be delivering bad service if we just saluted and went along with the customer’s preference without asking critical and probing questions. We should never stop asking questions and adopting a critical approach.
Simple Questions Are Enough
Yesterday, I met an entrepreneur, leader of a small tech organization, who took over the role of CEO not so long ago. And het told me that the first thing he did was to ask questions. He discovered there were a lot of assumptions, hollow phrases and blind spots in the organizations. I asked him which questions he did ask, and this was his list:
- What do you mean by that?
- Help me to understand what is the advantage for our customers?
- What does the product do exactly?
- How can we be more precise?
- How can we prove that?
- Why is this important?
- How do we know that this is what the customer wants?
These are simple questions, but asking them launches a thought process. This leader could probe and go deeper and deeper by not being satisfied by the first, often superficial answer. Questions should not be too complicated as proof of one’s intelligence. They must invite people to reconsider rigid and limited convictions and assumptions and look for better answers. I could say that questions help uncover the truth, but let’s be content with the claim that questions help us improve the way we deal with the challenges that we face.
Everybody needs Questions
However, it is not only the profession of consultancy that needs questions. Everybody does. Leaders who do not ask questions are bound to fail. Parents who do not ask their children questions miss many educational opportunities. Team members who do not question what their colleagues are doing seem to be tolerant of anything. Voters who do not ask critical questions make terrible mistakes, electing people who sell a lot of humbug without any evidence for their statements.
Opportunity
A question is an opportunity to open up the conversation, to include more thoughts, to discover more possibilities, to unearth more information, to know the problem better, to challenge the solution, to help others think, to invite people to express themselves, to help people to voice their concerns, to show people that they matter. And of course, probing questions help us to come to a better understanding and a better process of decision-making.
Leaders do not have that many tools in their rucksack, but the art of asking questions is one of them. Some leaders think it’s week because they think they have to have all the answers. Of course, they are mistaken. The Know-it-all position is not sustainable, and leaders who develop the habit of asking questions will gain much more influence.
Why is it Difficult?
Just as feedback is challenging, asking questions seems to be at least as difficult. Why is that?
- We are not very good at asking open, critical, yet mild and compassionate questions. We tend to ask closed questions, and too often, they are fired at people who receive the question as an accusation.
- So, we are often not good at receiving questions, transforming them into criticism and negative feedback. When trust or self-confidence are low, this is bound to happen.
- We do not want to waste someone’s time. If someone has reached a decision, asking further questions seems obstructive.
- There is always the power play. Asking questions is a vulnerable action and therefore one might decide to shut up when a more powerful person is talking. Lack of psychological safety stimulates that.
- We are satisfied with a plausible solution, so we do not need to ask questions.
- We assume that everybody agrees when they are silent, and at that moment, asking questions seems futile.
Whatever the reason, a question not asked is an opportunity not taken.
Some books I can recommend
- A More Beautiful Question, Warren Berger
- The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful …
- Good Leaders Ask Great Questions, John C. Maxwell
- Coaching Questions for Every Situation
Photo by Leeloo The First: https://www.pexels.com/photo/question-marks-on-paper-crafts-5428836/
