The Power of Questioning

The other day I was having a conversation with my daughter. She was bombarding me with a steady stream of questions about a new topic she was doing at school, and I was (slightly struggling!) to provide satisfactory answers (sound familiar to any of you?).??

We got there in the end. Mainly when I realised that the power of our conversation wasn’t actually in having to provide answers. It was in the questions she was asking. The whys. The hows. The what-ifs.??

The kind of questions that open up new possibilities. That helps you solve problems, and that causes you to reframe your perspective.??

But these days, there is still more emphasis in organisations on providing answers than asking questions. Questions can sometimes be seen as disruptive, and as slowing things down. Even as a challenge to authority.??

But by not giving enough emphasis to questions, organisations are missing out on a ready-made tool of discovery that helps people reflect and self-develop themselves and helps people work through challenges, gain deeper insights into the marketplace, and move the organisation into new opportunity spaces.?

Three Questions?

So let me ask you 3 questions:

1. What were the last questions you asked someone?
2. What do you usually give more thought or time to - the answers you give or your questions? Why?
3. When did you last sit down and mind wander through a series of questions, not worrying about the answers but instead getting lost in where the questions could take you??

But I also think there are questions, and then there are questions.??

And the power of questioning often comes from those questions that are intentionally crafted rather than just asked. The type of questions that Warren Berger calls more beautiful questions.?

Questions that are designed with an eye to the kind of thoughts they might elicit, rather than just requiring a simple yes/no response (although these can be useful too in some circumstances).?

Knowns and Unknowns.??

Another powerful thing about questions (especially left-field ones from a precocious 9-year-old) is that they don’t just allow you to showcase what you know. They also reveal what you don’t know, which in itself can be highly useful for building your expertise and knowing your gaps.???

But it’s also the case when we are talking about knowledge that there isn’t just what you know and what you know you don’t know?- there is (according to Marcos du Sautoy in his book What We Cannot Know)?what you don’t know you don’t know (so-called unknown unknowns), and, even more interestingly from a brain perspective, what you don’t know you know (unknown knowns- a bit of a head spin I know but stay with me…. )?

And I imagine those of you who are Coaching and People Development specialists out there probably spend quite a lot of your time dealing in particular, with the “what we don’t know we know” (I know I do!)???

These unknown knowns can be effectively revealed to people through coaching conversations and personal development training. Insights that people didn’t realise about themselves. Knowledge and skills they didn’t realise they had.??

All are just waiting to be elicited from their neural wiring when someone intentionally asks them the right questions.??

And so, if you do one new thing this week - consider giving a bit more love to the questions you’re asking. You never know where it might take you…?

If you are a Coach and questions are your thing, then you might be interested to hear that we’ve just launched our new Neuroscience for Coaches Certification Programme - it's packed full of bite-size videos, together with lots of coaching question resources - you can find out more about it here.

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