#ThinkfullyHabit: Get on the question quest
Asking questions is a deeply human thing. We are born asking lots of questions. In fact, pre-school children ask an average of 100 questions a day but by the time children are half way through their education asking questions dramatically falls and this trend continues into adulthood.
We live in a world that values people giving the answers more than it values them asking the questions. There’s lots of reasons we stop asking the questions – whether it’s fear of looking naïve, stupid or unknowledgeable, or because we don’t want to risk rocking the boat by challenging the status quo or simply because we’re too lazy to question the way things are done and to challenge the existing assumptions. However, questions may be one of the most powerful tools we have to get to new solutions, better outcomes and as Hal Gregerson of MIT says, to ‘open up the windows that other people can’t see through.’
“The important and difficult job is never to find the right answer, it is to find the right question.”
WHY?
Questions help to unearth the ideas and information that are under the surface. Hal Gregerson, Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Centre has developed a methodology called the ‘Question Burst”* which has been found to reframe and provide a new angle to solving a problem about 80% of the time and leaves around 85% of people feeling more optimistic about the challenge in question**. So next time you’re stuck on a challenge, spend some time looking for questions rather than immediately looking for answers. If you’re thinking there’s no time for that – the Question Burst requires only four minutes. Here’s the steps: 1) Get the challenge in mind 2) Set the timer for four minutes 3) In this time generate nothing but questions. Whatever you do, do not answer any of the questions and do not try and justify why you’re asking the questions that you are. That’s it. Afterwards step back and see if there’s any new questions that can help you shed new light on your challenge.