Why we ask questions and how OneWay helps us ask better questions

Last week, I suggested trying to influence a child to eat their vegetables by comparing eating vegetables to some other activity they enjoy. I edited out all discussion of handling objections.?

Use OneWay to handle any objection. Get a clear vision of the current state; Then define for yourself the next desired intermediate future state, sometimes this is a state where the objection or obstacle has been handled. More often it is a step toward handling the obstacle.

Even on something as simple (I don’t say easy.) as getting a child to eat veggies, intermediate future states and the actions needed to reach them can vary wildly, depending on specifics of the situation. This is beyond the scope of this newsletter. However, applying OneWay can help you clearly define your gaps in knowledge or information so you ask the right questions.?

What is a question?

I break questions into 2 broad categories: Static (aka factual) and contemplative (aka dynamic). In other words, questions to gain information or questions to gain understanding.?

Examples of static questions are: “Did I remember to lock the door?” “What time is it?” and “What is my plan for the day?”?

Contemplative questions can yield static answers but usually yield answers that are incomplete and include more questions. In our daily lives, these new questions seek the more actionable, static answers.

General contemplative questions could be: “Do I really need to lock my door?” “what do I want for lunch?” or “why didn’t my day go as planned?”

A third question category is more complicated and will have to wait for a different week. For the moment, lets call these questions “combination” questions. Their answers are complex and are both static and dynamic at the same time.?

How questions guide our lives

Various studies show that 40-45% of all daily activity is driven by habit. Habits are nothing more than static and general contemplative questions we have asked ourselves so many times that we have canned answers or automatic responses that we apply with little or no conscious thought.?

Consider driving. Have you ever driven home from work, parked your car and realized “I don’t even remember driving home.” Yet you arrived safely. There was a time when you consciously asked yourself, “should I speed up? Slow down?” Or “Which pedal is the brake” Now, your eyes scan and your hands and feet control the car while you think of today’s meeting or what’s for dinner. The questions still get asked, but your body answers.

Habit, static questions and general contemplative questions account for nearly all questions that guide our actions. We rarely need any guidance to ask the right questions in these situations.

How OneWay helps you ask the right deeply contemplative questions.

Above, I intentionally specified “general” contemplative questions. There are many sub-categories of both static and contemplative questions. Deeper contemplative questions are usually either brain candy for philosophy or critical tools for leaders. One measure of your leadership is how often you ask the deeper contemplative questions.

Some deeper, real-world contemplative questions:?

“What do I want for my family??In 1 year? 3 years?”

“How am I going to get this done on time?”?

“How can I foster a learning culture for my team?”?

Taking the example of creating a learning culture, the first question to ask is “what is the future state I desire?” On the surface, thats often an easy one to answer. Lets say your stated goal is “I want us to be a learning organization.” Great! Also, completely useless! ;)?

I’m teasing a bit.?Let's assume the goal has some meat behind it. You have 5-10 KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure where you are and how you are progressing toward becoming a learning organization.

If those KPI are from a book or even previous experience, they might be the wrong KPIs for you today.?

Have you written your detailed (future state) vision for your current team and assessed if those KPIs are the right metrics for this situation? They might always apply, but can you point to lines in your future state vision that directly result from reaching each KPI?

Are other aspects of your vision the natural result of reaching those KPIs, or are you missing an important measure?

If you have no KPIs for the journey, use the above as a guide to create KPIs. They are a crucial part of any formal future state vision. If you’re not familiar with creating KPIs, I recommend a quick Google or YouTube search to learn the basics.

Next, document your current state. Don’t measure it against any expectation or goal, just see it as it is.?By analyzing current state, within context but separate from the goal, you can discover gaps in your future state vision and maybe even critical changes or KPIs that need to be incorporated.

A map won’t guide you to your destination if you don’t know where you are.

If your metrics focus only on “where is the team relative to the goal?” They will leave enormous gaps. OneWay can help with some of these gaps. One such gap:

When detailing the current state, be as detailed as possible on the things that matter. Since we are talking about culture, the people and their values matter most.

Within reason, determined where each team member is at. At a minimum, I believe this should include their opinions of the current state and their feelings on and understanding of the proposed future state.?

Identify possible KPIs based on your understanding of the current state. A natural outcome of this exercise might be the KPI

1. What has individual progress been??

If you measure only as a group, you might never know if all members are coming along or a few are so active, it gives a false impression that culture is changing.

Since I'm talking about team KPIs, I just want to throw in a final thought:

In their book “The Gap and the Gain” Dr. Benjamin Hardy does an excellent job, detailing Dan Sullivan’s work in this area. My two-sentence over-simplification: When the team is focusing on the work to be done, it feels like a grind. When they focus on accomplishments/gains, it motivates more action.?

Having some KPIs that focus on progress rather than highlighting work to be done can be very beneficial, both for leadership and the team.