Can I ask you a Question?

As kids, we used to ask a lot of Questions. As we grew up, somewhere the fear of judgement emerged - What if my question is stupid, what will people think? There is a level of apprehension - Should I ask this question or not?

Recently I attended a session, where the facilitator broke the ice by making small groups and asked the small groups to come up with as many questions. After that 5 minute exercise, the number of questions from the audience increased immensely. This exercise made me reflect and I realized that the discussion in a small group reduced the fear of judgement as people got validation from others in the group

A lot of times we don't have confidence in our abilities and a little bit of validation gives us that assurance

Another idea is of a Bad Question Brainstorm - Encouraging people to ask stupid questions. It just makes everyone comfortable to ask Questions

12 Questions for Success from Book: Change your Questions, Change your Life

If you want to change your life, change the questions you ask yourself each day -

1. What do I want?
2. What assumptions am I making?
3. What am I responsible for?
4. How else can I think about this?
5. What is the other person thinking, feeling & wanting?
6. What am I missing or avoiding?
7. What can I learn from this person / situation/failure/mistake/success?
8. What Qs should I ask myself & others?
9. How can I turn this situation into a win-win one?
10. What’s possible
11. What are my choices?
12. What action steps make most sense?

Question Exercise

Every day, ask a question to your teams / groups...You can even post in on your whatsapp groups. Get everyone to respond to each question. The question is decided by a different person every day. The Questions could be like -

• Which is that moment you cherish most?
• What's your deepest fear?
• What's on your bucket list?

I have done this exercise and in 30 Days, through 30 different Questions - you get to know a lot about the people around you and helps build deep connections

Questions have more power than answers, both in thinking and communicating