To better understand the world, improve decision-making, strategize, and innovate, we need to convene small groups of people to engage in creative conversations triggered by powerful questions.
In the context of a small group conversation, what makes a question powerful? What are the attributes of a powerful question? And how do we go about designing such a question?
The usefulness of the knowledge we acquire and the effectiveness of the actions we take depend on the quality of the questions we ask.
Questions open the door to dialogue and discovery.
They are an invitation to creativity and breakthrough thinking.
Questions can lead to movement and action on key issues; by generating creative insights, they can ignite change.
What makes a Powerful Question?
There are simple questions, and then there are powerful questions. So what is the purpose of a question? Well, to solicit an answer, of course.
If I ask, “What time is it?” Someone might tell me, “ten past two.” I have asked my question and received an answer.
But questions that solicit informational answers to which the responder knows the answer are not powerful ones.
So what is different about a powerful question?
- Powerful questions are provocative.
- They spark creative thinking.
- Which in turn leads to new ideas.
- And new ideas, in turn, lead to innovation.
It is the thought process that is important.A powerful question provokes us to think deeply and to engage intensely in conversation with others which leads to a deeper or broader understanding of a subject and new insights.
It potentially changes the direction in which we are moving.
So what are the attributes of a powerful question?
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.
A question is used to trigger a conversation.
The first question to ask in designing a question is:
“What is the purpose of the conversation we plan to have?”
Conversations can have many purposes. The ones most likely to require an excellent question to trigger them are:
- to make sense of something, especially a complex issue
- to obtain different points of view or gain consensus
- to generate ideas, surface and imagine possibilities
- to connect with other people, to build relationships
- to solve problems or figure out how best to respond to them
- to reveal hidden issues or unintended consequences of our actions
- to search for opportunities
- to identify risks
- to make decisions
A conversation should only ever have one purpose. If there is more than one, then convene two or more separate discussions, each with its unique trigger question.
Attributes of a Powerful Question
In designing a powerful question – the following questions form a checklist against which you can evaluate it.
But remember, there is no one answer to what makes a powerful question, and there are no hard and fast rules.
Treat this list as a guide only and break any of these rules or more if you think it is appropriate.
- The question is short and precise.
A powerful question is nearly always a short one. It is easy to remember and easily understandable. But do not over shorten it – the most important thing is that it is clear.
Good example: “What will be the impact of this regulatory change?”
- The question is a single one.
A powerful question is usually a single question – not multiple questions wrapped up in a single sentence. Though often, two related questions wrapped into one works well.
Good example: “What are the barriers to knowledge sharing in our organization, and how might we overcome them?”
- The question is open-ended.
A powerful question is never a closed one but an open-ended one.
Bad example: Should we go ahead with the new branding exercise?
Good example: What should we do next?
- The question is provocative or a little unsettling.
It is one that slightly annoys or enthuses people depending on their values or beliefs.
Good example: When we compete on price, are we revealing a lack of faith in our products’ value to customers?
- The question is slightly unclear or ambiguous.
In some circumstances, it is helpful when a question is unclear or ambiguous in some way as it provokes thought around the nature of the question itself.
- The question does not contain any assumptions.
Most questions we pose include assumptions to one degree or another. A powerful question does not normally have any embedded assumptions.
Example: Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offense?
This question presupposes that smacking is a part of good parental correction.
- The question is not a leading one.
A leading question is a question that subtly prompts someone to answer in a particular way.
Bad example: What are the problems with the new system?
Good example: What do you think of the new system?
- The question focuses on action and personal behavioral change.
Questions that focus on action and personal behavioral change rather than academic or theoretical issues are excellent as they help keep the conversations grounded in reality.
- The question is a real issue and one that is of importance to the participants.
If I had to summarize which are the primary attributes that help make a question a compelling one, I would say
- It engages people and provokes them to think deeply.
Good example: What are the critical factors in making this decision?
- It is one people can relate to on a personal level.
Good example: How do we need to change as individuals for this to succeed?
Designing a powerful question
First, on your own or in a small group, reflect on the purpose of the question and the ensuing conversations.Powerful questions are those that, in the answering, evoke a choice for accountability and commitment.
- What is the context?
- Why are you doing this?
- What is it that you hope to achieve?
- What outcomes would you like to see?
- What is in it for the participants?
Think about these questions carefully, as they will determine the question that you ask. Now:
- Write your question down without too much thought.
- Now write several variations of the question but don’t judge them.
- Look at the questions – do they broadly reflect the issue you wish to tackle and the conversation you want to trigger?
- Next, evaluate each question against the criteria above.
- Modify or delete questions from your list as appropriate in the light of each criterion.
- Merge them if you can see an improvement.
- And add entirely new questions.
- Ask other people for suggestions or to comment or build on yours.
- Take the list into your head, think about them as a whole and see if one powerful question emerges.
Reframe the question
Think about reframing your question. It is surprising what a simple reframing will do to shift perspectives and dramatically change the conversation.
For example, move from an individualistic perspective to a community one.
From “If you could do whatever you wanted – what would that be?” to “If you could do whatever you’d want to enable your best friend to be more than he or she ever realized, what might it be?”
Reverse questions
Going off-topic
A beautiful question is an ambitious yet actionable question that can begin to shift the way we perceive or think about something — and that might serve as a catalyst to bring about change.
Credit: Waren Berger
When hosting a Knowledge Café, participants will often go off-topic. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The question is just a trigger, and as long as the participants are broadly on topic and discussing what they see as crucial to them, that is OK.
Too broad a question leads to a wide diversity of conversation; the Café often works best when the question is open but quite specific.
Some Examples of Powerful Questions
- What uncertainties should we be worried about?
- What opportunities are we missing?
- What opportunities do new technologies offer us?
- What is the threat of new technologies?
- What else are we missing?
- What is the biggest threat to us?
- What’s the most critical issue facing us?
- What do we have to do less to achieve more?
- What “enemies” do we have to defeat to achieve our objectives?
- What will our competitors envy about us in 5 years?
- How could we better work together?
Questions are more transforming than answers.
The skill is getting the questions right.
The traditional conversations that seek to explain, study, analyze, define tools, and express the desire to change others are interesting but not powerful.
Questions open the door to the future and are more powerful than answers in that they demand engagement.
Engagement in the right questions is what creates accountability.
How we frame the questions is decisive. They need to be ambiguous, personal, and stressful.
Introduce the questions by defining the distinction the question addresses, namely what is different and unique about this conversation.
A conversation architect designs powerful, strategic conversations. They determine the questions to trigger the conversations and design the processes to convene and host them.
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- How to design powerful questions.
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Resources
- Article: Art-of-Powerful-Questions
- Book: Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling by Edgar H Schein
- Book: A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger
- Fast Company: The One Conversational Tool that will make you better at absolutely everything.
- Harvard Business Review: The Surprising Power of Questions
Posts that link to this post
- Reverse Brainstorming Café Brainstorming the opposite of what you want
- Ask Questions ** Be curious - ask more questions
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I love this! Brilliant.
Thanks, Jo. Any insights you have on what makes a powerful question would be most gratefully received :-)