May I ask you a question?
Questions are great aren’t they? There is so much you can do with them from the annoying (you mean ask another one?) to the politician answering the one they wanted to be asked, not the one you did.
Despite those extremes, questions are a the doorway to understanding. Good questions aren’t just open but allow for exploration to happen. Being able to ask question — and stay quiet for longer than feels comfortable — is perhaps one of the most underdeveloped skills needed for the future.
Here are four questions that give you an approach to start developing that skill…
What is working well?
How would we be able to do more of that?
Think about what contributed to achieving that success and how you knew about it. The closer to the work activity you can get the better you understand the things that you have control over. Measures of success that are directly influenced by you can become leading indicators. The lagging indicators are only evident after the event and should be achieved because of the work activity you do.
What is unknown, causing anxiety, lacking control?
What can you do to reverse that?
Explore from your own perspective and that of the user or customer. Hesitancy leads to inertia and becomes a barrier to change. We make it hard for someone to say ‘yes’ to something. Be clear about the options, limit the choices, and allow for ‘yes’ and ‘no, not that but…’ to start the response.
As you ask these questions don’t be quick to stop but allow time for multiple concerns to be raised. The first one is rarely the true barrier. Keeping the dialogue alive by exploring “if that is addressed will there be anything else…?” helps you to get further insight into the real concern.
Why do you think this is the best response to the situation?
What is the evidence you’ve got this and how will we know it’s changed?
Very few of us like to ask for help. Fewer like to do so without having a list of things they believe would be worth trying. It’s easy to respond by proposing solutions that fit the description given. Knowing what is ‘keeping someone awake at night’ is less useful than knowing what is contributing to them thinking it’s the problem.
There’s a balance to be found between ‘romancing’ the problem and ‘falling in love’ with it. When we only romance the problem, we end up the victim, always thinking more could be done, just one more conversation will give us the answer. Whereas when we fall in love with the problem, we accept our solutions might be wrong regardless of how ‘right’ we think we are or the effort put in to them so far.
What needs to be different (as a result of…)?
Do we know why we’re solving this and what success will look like?
As I write this there is a builder digging the foundations for an extension to our house. At the controls of the digger, every task needs the bucket. I watched him skilfully move a plank to limit damage to the grass…using the bucket. I’m not convinced it was the quickest way, but it was solved in the mindset he was in.
We’re probably all guilty of doing the same — my job title guides my response to your question or task. Just as we need to avoid jumping into the solution design, we need to challenge if we’re solving the right problem in the right way. If someone has overcome the barrier of asking for your input, then there is the temptation to do what they’ve asked you to do. Being able to think about the description (and measure of success) for the future state will help to validate the understanding of the situation and open up the possibility that there could be another way, or even more to the problem than you currently understand.
