Are You Asking Questions the Right Way? ASK: Aim, Surprise, and Kindle.

Inputs and Outputs: What’s the difference and how do these factors determine who wins and who loses?

Do you know the difference between an output and an input? On paper, you probably do. But chances are, when it comes to real life, you get them confused.

That’s okay. We all do it. It’s a problem that stems across society, not just within the business world. We look at an output and we think of it as an input.

This is the biggest reason why we don’t ask high-value questions. And it all stems from how we phrase our questions.

Let me give you an example. If you’re a coach of a sports team, you are probably thinking, “How do I win a championship?”

When you phrase your question this way, you are thinking of how to get to the output. The output is winning a championship. The output is getting more sales. The output is raising customer satisfaction. The output is increasing shareholder value, reducing costs, improving revenue and so forth.

But outputs are just that…outputs. They are the result of specific actions. Identifying and understanding those actions is the foundation for asking high value questions….that will drive high value results and breakthrough innovation.

How basketball teams win championships

When I coached basketball, I never told my team, “We must win a championship.” We won a lot of championships, but I never said our goal was to win a championship. So what did I say that helped us win?

I said our goal was to win the rebounding battle. Our goal was to play great defense. Our goal was great ball movement and shot selection. And we kept our attitudes and emotions in check by respecting ourselves, respecting our teammates, and respecting the game.

I never confused outputs for inputs. General questions lead to general answers. High value questions focus on inputs that are a set of beliefs that can be acted upon.

How high value questions lead to breakthrough innovation

When the NBA created the 3-point shot in 1979, conventional wisdom was that you still had to pound the ball inside to win the game. The idea was to shrink the defense to give your 3-point shooter wide open looks at the basket. NBA teams didn’t expect to shoot better than 30% from 3-point range but could shoot 60%+ inside the paint.

The addition of the 3-point line didn’t cause the majority of the league to change their views. Then what happened? Somebody said, “Wait a minute. What if we challenge the core belief that shot selection closest to the basket is the way to win a championship?” Is that truly a core belief?

Exposing existing beliefs

The Golden State Warriors eventually created a new style of basketball. Instead of coming down the court for a layup, they went further away from the basket. They went past the 3-point line, squared up, then took their shot. The Warriors led the league again this year with a 39% average at 3-point shots and now hold an impressive number of records for shooting beyond the arc. Fundamentally, they broke every rule of basketball and changed the game forever.

By exposing the inputs, or your core set of beliefs that will result in a desired output, you can allow those core beliefs to be challenged and discussed in the hopes of driving to a breakthrough innovation. This may seem obvious, but in the real world it is rarely practiced. The ability to ask a high value question and continue the process to expose your core beliefs is what allows breakthrough innovation to occur.

In other words, success or failure is not determined by what you don’t know, but is determined by what you believe to be true. You must expose the core beliefs. The problem isn’t as obvious as it looks if you are results oriented, but you’re looking at outputs, not inputs. These are the results of doing certain things. These are the results of a certain set of core beliefs. If you don’t ever expose those core beliefs, then you don’t ever get to the high-value question.

As the NBA playoffs unfold this year, which NBA team has asked the right high-value questions? And what core beliefs need to be challenged at your company or in your line of work?