Asking the right questions – develop your team’s ability to get to the heart of an issue
Posted by
It’s all too easy, especially when we are really busy, to accept what people tell us at face value, but this can mean putting in place hasty solutions that address the symptom rather than the real problem. So, get yourself and your team into real solution mode by developing everyone’s ability to ask great questions and have some fun in the process. Here’s how.
First set aside some time to get the team together. Get a quiet space away from your usual team space. It always helps people to think differently when they are out of their immediate routine and away from the desk. You could do this in a team meeting if needed or arrange an additional team meeting if that is logistically possible. You know your team, it might help to bribe them with chocolate, sweets or cake if that will get their brains going!
Outline a problem or issue that you want the team to help with. It could be a customer complaint that sounds too familiar or a process that doesn’t seem to work or takes more time than seems right, or perhaps another team needs help to introduce some changes and you want everyone to reflect on what that will mean for them and the work they do. Make it clear you want everyone’s perspective and all comments and ideas, however outlandish, are welcome.
Establish ground rules: no talking over each other, mobiles off, critique the problem not your colleagues, and let them know you want them to enjoy themselves. Explain that to get the right solutions it’s vital to ask the right questions that you want to try the following exercise to help get to the heart of the issue.
Pick one of the following options and see what new information and perspectives are revealed:
- ‘Why..?’ State the issue and then each person takes a turn in asking ‘why does x happen?’ Keep ‘digging’ until ‘why..?’ is no longer the right question. This will either mean the answer isn’t known and you need to investigate – at which point you and the team can decide on the next best steps – or that you have established what is really at the core of the issue and have got past the symptoms. In which case you can move to solution mode knowing you really understand what’s causing the problem or issue
- ‘How can we make it worse?’ Though counter-intuitive, it can be worth seeing how you might worsen a situation to see how bad things might get. Once it’s as bleak as can be, looking at how to avoid getting to that dark point in the first place can actually be easier. Why? It’s given you all some distance from the starting point and you can view things more objectively. It also emphasises how important a good resolution will be – the benefits that will accrue will feel significant even if the solution isn’t optimal.
- Devil’s Advocate – this is particularly useful to see how the current situation might suit some people and therefore highlight who may actually want to prevent change. Great for stakeholder analysis. It’s also good when evaluating options. Make sure each person on the team takes a turn in being the Devil’s Advocate.
TAKE AWAY
Even high performing teams can develop group think or have under-developed thinking styles. So, develop your team’s ability to question the status quo, or a problem, to improve their ability to get to the heart of the matter and find solutions that really work.