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July 10 - August 11, 2019
“People may start out asking, ‘How can we do this?’ or ‘How should we do that?’ But as soon as you start using words like can and should, you’re implying judgment: Can we really do it? And should we?” By substituting the word might, he says, “You’re able to defer judgment, which helps people to create options more freely and opens up more possibilities.”
best ways to stoke creativity during brainstorming sessions is to ask people in the group to think about the problem they’re trying to solve from an unusual perspective.
if a company is introducing a new toothpaste, they might ask: How would IKEA tackle a challenge like this? Another approach is to add in an odd constraint, such as What if your idea had to involve speed dating? Rossi’s group sometimes suggests adopting the perspective of a well-known artist or entertainer: What would Jay-Z do in this situation? How would J. K. Rowling think about this? What might Neil Patrick Harris do?
starts by asking How might we?
“The most important thing business leaders must do today is to be the ‘chief question-asker’ for their organization,”
the best leaders understand that asking open, exploratory questions can help them figure out what’s coming and where new opportunities lie, so that they can lead their company in new directions.
Ron Shaich of Panera observes, “When you’re leading a team, a start-up, or a public company, your primary occupation must be to discover the future. A compelling and even subversive question is an effective tool for navigating uncharted terrain.”
answers are relative. You can have an answer for right now, but it changes.”
the willingness to be comfortable with, and even to embrace, ambiguity is critical for today’s leaders.
A great source of questioning input can and probably should come from outside the company—from those who have enough distance to question the company as a naïve outsider.
outsider generally shouldn’t be telling you what to do. He/she should be helping you to see things from a different angle, challenge your own assumptions, reframe old problems, and ask better questions—so that, in the end, you can figure out the solutions yourself.
one of the most important things a leader can do is project a clear and distinctive point of view that others can follow. But that clear vision is arrived at, and constantly modified and sharpened, through deep reflection and questioning.
Bertrand Russell once said, “In all affairs it’s a healthy thing36 now and then to hang a question mark on the things you take for granted.”
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Whether or not the mission statement is phrased as a question, it should be subject to constant questioning: Does it still make sense today? Are we, as a company, still living up to it (if we ever did)? Is the mission growing and pulling us forward?
And lastly, Are we all on this mission together?
One way to help people feel more engaged with a company mission is to give them a role in shaping it or refreshing an existing one.
When a business culture is inquisitive, the questioning, learning, and sharing of information becomes contagious—and gives people permission to explore new ideas across boundaries and silos.
It’s fine to tell employees they can ask whatever they wish—but if those queries end up in a question box no one ever opens, it can be counterproductive.
companies must direct more budgetary resources to those who are exploring unanswered questions, conducting promising experiments, and taking intelligent risks.
“failed experiments” (which often pave the way for subsequent innovations) should be rewarded alongside proven successes, particularly if the experiment or the questioning provides valuable learning.
be on the lookout for ways in which questioning gets punished—though the punishment may not be obvious or intentional.
ask the problem-finders to what extent and how they would want to be involved in working on that problem. The understanding should be they won’t have to go it alone; that they’ll be given as much time and support as is feasible; and that, even if they never ultimately answer the question, they’ve earned credit just by asking it.
people need time to be able to ask and to work on difficult questions.
“Hack Days”43 provide employees “an opportunity to spend a day and develop things that they’re really passionate about,”
“With a culture of questioning, there’s always more possibility.”
corporate bureaucracy and hierarchy do not foster questioning or any open communication within a company.
Lattice, an elaborate networking system within the company that connects every employee to every other employee.
When a new hire joins the company, their first relationship is with a sponsor (or mentor), “who will lend their credibility and their lattice to the new person, until that person has built up their own lattice,” France says.
Since no one tells you what to do, you must use your own powers of inquiry (and help from your sponsor) to figure things out for yourself.
trains everyone in the company on how to ask good questions—providing specific instruction on asking questions that can be applied to testing new ideas, weighing the value of pursuing possible opportunities or innovations (Is this opportunity real? Is there a customer who needs it?), as well as using questioning to improve collaboration with other employees. Particular emphasis is placed on effective questioning for sponsors to better coach/mentor new employees.
Since curiosity and learning go hand in hand, one of the big questions some companies are now working on is How do we transform a workplace into a learn-place?
the best corporate learning environments have some common elements. Bringing in outsiders to teach and inspire; encouraging insiders to teach each other; putting employees’ work on the walls to share ideas, especially on work in progress—all invite questioning and feedback from others and encourage greater collaboration.
If a company is going to encourage questioning, it must teach people to do it well—or risk being besieged by nonproductive questions.
in creating a truly effective culture of inquiry, management and employees must meet at a midway point. Employees need to understand that “if you ask questions that aren’t critically thoughtful, you may end up missing out on the opportunity that comes with the freedom to question.”
management must understand that “the scaffolding around problems is made up of a lot of questions, so don’t get perturbed by the number of them or try to limit them.”
For innovative questioning to gain traction, there has to be a willingness throughout the company to build on ideas, to keep the tone of questioning generally positive (à la appreciative inquiry), and to use language that is open and inclusive (How might we?).
Responding to exploratory questions with highl...
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can have an important place in the discussion, but not necessarily at the early stages. Part of building a culture of inquiry is teaching people to defer judgment while exploring new ideas and big questions.
learning the art of questioning doesn’t happen in company classrooms or conference rooms: “It’s more about going out into the world and getting better at observing and listening.”
Contextual inquiry may be the most important questioning skill employees can pick up, but it’s developed mostly through on-the-ground experience. Company leaders and managers may be able to provide some basic tips on what to look for, but the most important thing they can offer employees is the freedom to venture outside the bubble and do their own investigation.
best ways to grow and maintain a culture of inquiry is to continually add new people who are naturally inquisitive.
tell every person coming in for an interview to bring a few questions with them. Make it clear those questions should be ambitious and open-ended—Why, What If, and How questions are recommended. These should also be relevant to your company or industry.
To test whether the person can question on the fly, you might ask, during the interview, that the candidate build upon one or more of the prepared questions with additional questions (using the Right Question Institute practice of follow-up questioning to improve and advance existing questions).
John Hagel suggests you ask yourself13 this question: When I look back in five years, which of these options will make the better story?
Jacobs believes every now and then one should go through one’s day, from waking up until bedtime, questioning and reexamining everything.
instead of putting her lipstick on clockwise, she would put it on counterclockwise. Just being more aware of what you’re doing, more mindful—there’s something wonderful about that.”
When you change one small thing32 and it works, it can help breed the confidence to change other things—including bigger ones.
Millard Fuller, who said, “It’s easier to act your way33 into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.”
When he finds that he’s doubting himself on a project, Jacobs asks, What would an optimistic, confident person do? That person would probably cast aside those doubts and forge ahead, so Jacobs tries to do likewise.
“We learn who we are—in practice, not in theory—by testing reality.”
