The Power of Smart Questions

by Rodger Dean Duncan

Few things are as delightful – and thought-provoking – as the innocent questions of a child:

      “What color is thunder?”

      “Do cows get bored? Do they care?”

      “Does the Fairy Princess know she’s not real?”

      “How old is dirt?”

      “Who came before God?”

Good questions are the sign of a fertile mind, and we should cultivate our own question-asking skills as adults.

Good questions stimulate thinking.

When we get stuck in a particular pattern of thinking, it’s often because we keep asking ourselves the same questions. Change the question and you’re more likely to come up with a more practical answer.

Sixty years ago, Edwin Land was walking along the beach with his young daughter. He stopped to snap a few photos with his Brownie camera. Impatient for the results, his little girl asked an intriguing question: “Daddy, why can’t we see the pictures right now?” It was a problem in search of a solution, and from that innocent question came the development of the Polaroid Land camera and the ability to see a completed photograph only seconds after it was taken.

Decades later, Arthur Fry was singing in his church and noticed that fellow choir members marked their places in the hymnbooks with small strips of paper. When they opened their books to a new page, the slips of paper often fell to the floor. Fry, who worked for the 3M Corporation, had a colleague who had developed a high quality adhesive that adhered instantly but less tightly than other adhesives. It was a solution in search of a problem. And it was just the answer for Fry’s question “How can I make a bookmark that will stick to the page but won’t tear the paper when I move it somewhere else?” The result was the ubiquitous Post-It^¨ Note.

In some ways, we live in the age of the reluctant thinker. Original thinking is not always rewarded. Despite a lot of lip service about the value (and necessity) of frequent change, many corporate cultures cling tenaciously to the status quo. People who question “the way things have always been done” are often branded as troublemakers rather than as innovators.

In our “just do it” society, thinking is often viewed as unproductive. When economic times get tough, one of the first budget items to go is training. Good training involves good questions and good answers, which lead to good thinking, which leads to productive people. But many short-sighted managers don’t have the big picture. So they cut the training and development, then wonder why their people seem stuck in the old ruts. It’s sort of like “I don’t have time to stop and get gas because I’m too busy driving!”

Good questions lead to valuable information.

Truly effective people tend to be questioning detectives. Remember Columbo, the television cop who always solved the crime by asking (in his famously offhand manner) just one more question? We should be more like Columbo, asking that extra question to probe and clarify until we’re sure we understand what we need to know or do.

Good journalists, good detectives, good thinkers focus on five W’s and an H – Who, Where, What, When, Why and How. They ask questions that march them down the path to the information or understanding they seek. They know that not everyone volunteers information, so they ask. They know that some people speak in generalities, so they ask for specifics. They know that assumptions can be faulty, so they question assumptions – beginning with their own. They know that effects have many masquerades, so they dig for root causes. They know that words and phrases can mean different things to different people, so they seek for clarity and common ground.

Even in this age of Internet search engines and other means of instant information, we can never know everything. And even when we do find answers, we only generate more questions. For generations, scientists struggled with the question “How can we prolong life?” Today we have the technology to keep people alive long after their bodies cease to function on their own. So now one of the questions has become “Should we prolong life?”

Good questions help us gain control.

Just like there’s bad cholesterol and good cholesterol, there’s bad control and good control. The bad kind of control has to do with manipulation of others. The good kind of control has to do with managing a situation and, especially, managing ourselves.

We can help manage our own physical vitality by asking the right kind of questions of our doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other health care providers. We can manage our own financial health by asking the right questions of our brokers, accountants, attorneys, insurance people and financial planners. We can manage our own home maintenance by asking the right questions of the plumber, the electrician, the landscaper and the guy at the hardware store.

The best conversationalists are usually people who ask good questions. They don’t interrogate, they simply ask meaningful questions that other people are willing to answer. People who seem to do best in job interviews are those who come prepared with questions of their own.

Good questions, coupled with genuine listening, enable us to be in control without appearing to be controlling, to be assertive without being aggressive.

Although effective communication usually has a spontaneous feel to it, a bit of planning is often in order.

Lewis Carroll’s book Alice in Wonderland offers some pertinent lessons. You may recall the exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat about the importance of setting goals. Consider this passage in which Alice asks the Cheshire Cat for advice on which direction to go.

“Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to go,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where—” said Alice .

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

It really takes no effort to get somewhere. Just do nothing, and you’re there. If you want to get somewhere meaningful, however, you must know where you want to go. Then you need to make plans on how to get there. Thoughtful questions can provide a good roadmap.

Good questions stir people to open up.

Ask routine questions and you’ll likely get routine, minimalist responses.

      “How was your day?

      “Fine.”

      “Was the traffic any better?”

      “About the same.”

      “Did your presentation go okay?”

      “Pretty much.”

I practice my questioning habits with my granddaughters. Why? Because they’re among my all-time favorite people and because their answers usually lead to delightful, self-revealing conversations.

The questions that jump-start these great dialogues are designed to provoke thought and are not conducive to routine answers. Some of them don’t even end with a question mark.

      “What was the funniest thing that happened to you today?”

      “What part of today would you like to happen again tomorrow?”

      “Tell me how participating in the spelling bee can help you in other subjects.”

      “What important thing have you learned since we last talked?”

      “How can you help me be smarter?”

      “In what ways were you a good friend today?”

      “Who are the characters in the book you’re reading? What do you like about them?”

There’s really nothing complicated about thought-provoking questions. They simply require thought – your thought in asking them, and the respondent’s thought in answering them. And they are appropriate in any venue.

Rather than ask a client to tell me generally what’s going on in his company, I may ask “What kind of day-to-day business situation has the power to keep you awake at night?” Or “If you could wave a magic wand over your business, what would you change? Why?” Or, “Whose leadership style do you most admire? How is your own style different or similar?”

While good questions can stir others to open up, it’s our own genuine listening that helps persuade them to stay open with us. A comic once said that authentic communication is 50 per cent sincerity, and then you just fake the rest of it. That line may get a chuckle, but it’s a dangerous practice. Genuine listening is much, much more than eye contact and an occasional “uh-huh.” Genuine listening involves connecting heart to heart and working to understand the other person’s viewpoint even if you don’t agree with it. Good questions can pave the way.

Good questions cause people to persuade themselves.

A secret to persuasion is to encourage or enable people to come up with their own solutions to problems. Said another way, we can persuade others by helping them persuade themselves.

It’s a fact of human nature that many people have more confidence in what they say than in what you say. When people come up with their own answers and when they say something in their own voice, they’re much more likely to take ownership of the idea.

The best coaches I know – athletic coaches, speech coaches, music coaches, business coaches – invest most of their time and effort in asking pertinent questions that result in focused feedback.

For example, let’s say a speech coach is helping a business executive prepare for an important presentation to employees. Rather than simply prescribe a step-by-step approach to drafting and rehearsing the presentation, the coach is likely to ask a series of targeted questions:

“Specifically who are your audience members?”

“Based on the feedback you receive, what seems to be their view of your own performance?”

“In what ways can you help your people ‘catch the vision’ of the company’s possibilities?”

“How can you genuinely differentiate your business from your competitors?”

“What kind of data will meet the information needs of your audience, and how can you package the data in a fresh, compelling way?”

“How can you show your audience the linkage between the company’s success and their own personal best interests?”

“How can your presentation come across as a friend-to-friend chat on subjects of mutual interest rather than as a hollow pronouncement from the big guy in the corner office?”

These are pertinent questions, and the answers have a lot more influence when they come from the person being coached.

Self coaching.

Of course the coaching that’s always available to us is self coaching. Self coaching requires the willingness to seek honest feedback from others and the discipline to translate that feedback into deliberate improvement. Unfortunately, many people have fallen into the “been there, done that” rut. They forget that self criticism – when it’s honest and balanced – is a critical ingredient in personal improvement. Effective people tend to ask themselves questions like these:

What went well yesterday that’s worth repeating today? How can I make it happen?

How can I prepare for this meeting so my participation will add real value?

This interesting solution doesn’t quite fit the problem. Can it be applied to another problem? (Remember the story of the Post-It^¨ Notes.)  

What things is my spouse, child, colleague or friend genuinely interested in? What questions are most likely to trigger an interesting conversation?

What specific activities – right now – are most likely to advance me toward my goal? (Yard by yard it’s hard, but inch by inch it’s a cinch.)

What have I learned from a recent mistake or missed opportunity? How can I put that learning to good use?

Smart questions are not complicated. In fact, they’re deceptively simple. And using smart questions to make yourself even smarter is a practice that’s – well, it’s as old as dirt.  

(Rodger Dean Duncan's LinkedIn Profile)