Arnaud Chevallier, Frédéric Dalsace and Jean-Louis Barsoux
- “I probably give fewer answers and I ask a lot more questions….It’s almost possible now for me to go through a day and do nothing but ask questions.” ~ Jensen Yang NYT
- probing questions to get people to work things out themselves
- The big differentiator is no longer the access to information, but the ability to craft smarter prompts
- Questions that get people into trouble are the ones that fail to be asked
- Strategic groupings of questions:
- Investigative (whats known?) - gaining depth. Asking questions to dive deeper to non traditional solutions or problems
- Toyota ‘5 Whys’ - asking why 5 times to get to non traditional responses
- Probing How questions continuously to get to fringe cases
- Speculative (what if?) - broadening the scope to the possibilities
- IDEO “How might we..” coined by Min Basadur - broadening the possibilities of how a solution can be completed.
- Productive (now what?) - questioning availability of time, resources, talent, leverage, etc.
- “How can we get it done?”, “How can we measure success”
- Interpretive (so what?) - continually checking if the right question is being asked. Draw out the implications of actions/results you witness
- “What if this trend continues?”
- “So, what opportunities does this draw out?”
- “What did we learn”
- “How was this useful”
- Subjective (what is unsaid?) - checking the emotional reactions of those involved
- Allow doubters/dissenters to share their views
- How do you really feel about this decision?
- Are there differences between what was said, what was heard, and what was meant?
- Have we consulted the right people?
- Are all stakeholders genuinely aligned?
- Investigative (whats known?) - gaining depth. Asking questions to dive deeper to non traditional solutions or problems