A number of years ago, I spent two and half days at the Lean Startup Machine (@LSMWashDC) Workshop held at 1776. Trying to go from an idea to revenue in less than 72 hours with a group of entrepreneurs I never met before was no easy task.
What I discovered however is that there are no shortage of ideas but there is shortage of constructing the right question(s) to validate the idea. One of the mottos at LSM was “invalidate my assumptions”. The idea is to construct the right questions that would invalidate the riskiest assumptions as quickly as possible. The team that was able to construct questions to invalidate their assumptions are the ones that secure funding for their product idea.
In an organizational context, I find that the right question is the one that is most suited to the situation. The one that challenge the assumptions and disrupt the status quo. The one that might seem obvious but no one is willing to ask it. I am sure you can think of many examples of how asking the right question could have changed a fate of a project, product, company or perhaps the course of someone’s life.
Einstein said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes”.
If asking the proper or right question is so critical, what’s stopping us from asking it?
Here are 3 main challenges:
Challenge #1: Too much focus on finding solutions rather than discovering the problem. Even when we shift our focus to discovering the problem, we may not know the right question(s) to ask. This could be because we have not considered the questions we need to ask. W. Edwards Deming once said, “If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.”
Try this: When everyone is trying to focus on solutions, try to step back and ask a question to the group. The one question you almost always need to pull out when things get murky is what is our goal? (goal). Questions such as “what is the problem?” might not be the right one at this point since often times we have not yet figured out the problem or there might be a combination of problems that we need to investigate.
Another good one is what could we try? (options)* and last but not least is what’s the next step? (experiment)*.
*Check out lean change management cycle by Jason Little.
Challenge #2: The environment discourages individuals from asking questions implicitly or explicitly. Perhaps it will stir up conflict even though conflict can be healthy but that’s a topic for another day.
Try this: Ask questions like where do we go from here? And when can we check back? These are less confrontational questions that could move the needle. Bear in mind that you need to raise awareness and educate others about conflict so that a culture of inquiry is promoted and encouraged.
*I do recommend learning about different conflict models. Also, check out the concept of anzeneering by Joshua Kerievsky.
Challenge #3: Lack of preparation and ‘deliberate’ practice. Here’s an exercise for next time you are in a conversation or meeting, try to pay close attention to the number of times someone asks a question (Not make a statement but ask an open-ended question like what are we trying to get out of this meeting?)
Try this: Imagine you are about to conduct an interview and think about the questions that you need to ask. Ask the group what is missing? Or what do we need to think about? Sometime there is no time to prepare especially in a fast pace environment so the question becomes what questions are we here to answer? Try stating the goals of the meeting as questions.
For a deeper dive on preparing questions, here are 3 places to start:
- What might happen if you asked powerful questions?
- CTI sample powerful questions
- The art of powerful questions
Remember, it is not just about asking a powerful question, it is about asking the RIGHT question. What is the question that you need to ask right now?
