Asking Questions
One of the many things leaders and their teams don’t do enough is ask each other effective questions. High-performing teams excel when people ask questions. Lots of them. There is nothing more powerful than a good question.
Why? It uncovers thinking, often good thinking. It forces attention to the inquiry, rather than the answer. Premature conclusions, devoid of review and contemplation, are the death of good decision-making.
And asking questions trains the people around you. If the CEO asks questions, rather than provides answers, the entire enterprise becomes an inquiry machine, tuned to adaptation, sensitivity to the changing environment, and deeply interested in the optimal choice in the face of almost endless optionality.
And asking good questions is an art, but it doesn’t take much to get good at it.
First, ask Open Questions.
If it can be answered yes or no, it’s probably not a good question. Often, questions with “would,” “should,” “is,” “are,” and “do you think” all lead to yes or no.
Not: Are you okay with the process so far?
Yes.
Okay, great! (no thought-provoking, generative exchange of information)
Instead: How are you feeling about the process so far?
That exchange should generate a follow-up question. (If it does not, start over).
How are you feeling about the process so far?
I think it is going okay
What makes you say that?
And, perhaps the most powerful question on earth is: “Help me understand what you mean. How did you come to that conclusion?”
The second most important question on earth may well be:
“Let me try to repeat back what I think you said. Did I get it right?”
A High-Performance Conversation
How did the meeting go?
It went well.
How do you know?
We devised a great list of next steps, and the post-meeting survey was very positive.
What did the post-meeting review questionnaire generate? What did people say?
They said they enjoyed the facilitator, and they were glad that their time was well-spent.
What do you think made that possible?
We worked hard on the agenda, and we checked for agreement before we started. And we used a facilitator instead of trying to do it ourselves.
How do we make this happen every time?
I'll make a “good-meeting checklist” for the section leaders. And we will use that facilitator again.
What else might we do?
Well, I’ll bet that the big room made a difference, because of the windows. It felt invigorating to be able to open them. Also the breaks and the food. I'll ask the group if we can pull any other positives out of them.
Great, so here is where I think we came to:
The meeting went well because the facilitator and the team collaborated on creating an effective agenda, including a check-in. There were breaks and food. And the room helped because it was big and you could open the windows. You will poll the group for more insights, make a “good meeting checklist” and put it on our Slack site. Did I get it right?
Yes, that sounds right. Oh, and one more thing. The calendar for using the meeting room is kind of being ignored. I am going to remind everyone to use it.
Great