Questioning skills are essential for any leader who wants to solve problems effectively, improve performance, and foster innovation. However, not all questions are equally useful. In this article, you will learn how to use questioning skills to identify the root cause of a problem, rather than just addressing the symptoms or jumping to conclusions.
A root cause is the underlying factor or condition that leads to a problem or issue. It is often hidden, complex, or systemic, and requires careful analysis and investigation to uncover. Identifying the root cause of a problem can help you prevent it from recurring, avoid wasting resources, and achieve lasting solutions.
Questioning skills are the ability to ask open-ended, probing, and clarifying questions that elicit relevant and meaningful information. These skills can be used to identify the root cause of a problem by engaging the people involved in the issue, exploring it from different angles, challenging assumptions, testing hypotheses, verifying facts, finding inconsistencies, and eliminating irrelevant causes. This process can help you gain perspectives, insights, and feedback that can be useful in understanding the problem.
Using questioning techniques and frameworks to identify the root cause of a problem can be effective. The 5 Whys method is one of the most popular and involves asking "why" repeatedly until the root cause is identified. For example, why is our customer satisfaction score low? This could be due to frequent delays in delivering our products, which could be attributed to an inefficient and unreliable production process. This could be caused by outdated equipment and insufficient training, which in turn could be due to a limited budget and competing priorities. The root cause of the problem is ultimately a lack of strategic vision and alignment, which has repercussions on the budget, the priorities, the equipment, the training, the production process, and customer satisfaction.
Sometimes it's not the question itself that is important - but the space and time that you offer in which it can be answered. If a question is met with silence, use your observation skills to see if your respondent is thinking about an answer, before trying to fill the silence yourself. We all process information and questions in different ways - and we each have our own unique pace of answering. Hold back your desire to have all the answers instantly, and be curious about what emerges. Keep your questions as open as possible - inviting discussion and even disagreement. Sometimes an unguarded comment or response can be the best information.
Questioning skills are powerful tools for identifying the root cause of a problem, but they can also backfire if used incorrectly or inappropriately. To avoid common pitfalls, don't ask leading or closed questions that suggest the answer you want or expect, nor too many or too few questions that overwhelm or underwhelm the respondents. Additionally, make sure to avoid irrelevant, off-topic, vague, ambiguous, judgmental, or accusatory questions as they can distract, confuse, create misunderstanding or misinterpretation, and offend or provoke the respondents.
When you think of 'questioning' might be tempted to think of 'interrogation'. But questioning skills include reserving judgement, avoiding placing blame, and removing your own attachment to the outcome. By doing these three things you will be better able to observe what's going on in front of you - rather than getting distracted by trying to draw a conclusion. Keep your questions open - and when you think something is vague or unclear try saying 'go on...' to encourage the person answering to fill in the details in their own way. Finally, do not feel pressured to come to a conclusion after one round of questions. Give yourself time to reflect on the information you have gathered - and return for more answer later if needed.
Questioning skills are essential for any leader who wants to identify the root cause of a problem and achieve effective and sustainable solutions. To develop and enhance your questioning skills, you should prepare questions in advance tailored to the purpose, context, and audience of the problem. Additionally, listen actively and attentively to the responses and follow up with relevant questions. Furthermore, use both open-ended and closed questions to gather qualitative and quantitative information. Moreover, use probing questions to dig deeper and clarifying questions to check for understanding and accuracy. Lastly, be respectful and courteous when asking questions and acknowledge and appreciate the responses. With practice and feedback, you can improve your questioning skills.
When diving deeper, you should also remember your tone and pace. If your tone ior your pace is not how you typically speak it will cause an issue. When doing this technique, I have found keeping the same tone I would talking about something personal has proven to be the best way to really provide less friction.