The Art of Asking Great Questions
Hi there,
Welcome to the New Year and the first edition of the year.
I recently completed Tom Wujec's Wicked Problem Solving course. In one module, Tom shared an intriguing story about Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, completed in 1642.
“The Night Watch” by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642. Oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. (Image sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.)
A mentally ill school teacher damaged this iconic painting centuries later, requiring extensive restoration.
During the process, curators introduced an innovative approach. They asked their visitors what they would like to know about the painting. Then, they framed a gallery of the top 50 visitor questions about the painting and the answers, inviting visitors to engage with it. A second gallery hosted the restored painting.
But the story didn’t end with the restoration.
Visitors spent time exploring these questions instead of glancing at the restored painting. The effect was transformative. The average viewing time of the artwork increased from over two minutes to more than 25 minutes—a tenfold increase. The painting itself hadn’t changed, but how viewers interacted with it had.
The gallery of questions sparked curiosity and activated their imaginations. This approach demonstrates the power of thoughtful inquiry to reshape experiences and perceptions.
That's the power of asking great questions.
The Value of Asking Great Questions
Great leaders ask great questions, not because they have all the answers, but because they are willing to learn.
— John C. Maxwell.
Asking great questions showcases effective leadership. They open minds, uncover insights, and foster collaboration, especially in today's uncertain and complex world. The ability to ask the right questions is essential for navigating uncertainty, ensuring clarity, and achieving strategic alignment.
Asking great questions is more than communication; it helps solve problems, engage stakeholders, and drive alignment for better outcomes.
Here’s how powerful questions shape outcomes:
Focused Inquiry: Great questions frame situations, guide problem-solving, and probe for deeper insights. In enterprise architecture, asking great questions helps you address stakeholder concerns. They also allow you to consider the constraints that may affect a solution. The Open Group shares generic architecture compliance review checklists to get you on your way.
Curiosity and Trust: You show genuine curiosity, build trust, and convey emotional intelligence.
Clarity and Balance: Balanced, open-ended questions avoid bias and encourage thoughtful responses.
Future Orientation: Questions that explore possibilities inspire innovative thinking and creativity. In foresight, great questions are a gateway to insights. They ignite our imagination, reveal hidden opportunities, and turn uncertainty into clear strategy.
How to Plan Great Questions
Planning great questions requires intentional effort. While there are different approaches to this, Tom mentioned three types of questions:
Framing Questions: Define the scope and focus of a conversation.
• Example: What is the most important outcome of this initiative?
Navigation Questions: Guide and propel discussions.
• Example: What steps would help us achieve this goal?
Probing Questions: Dig deeper to clarify and challenge assumptions.
• Example: What underlying factors might we be missing?
Many educational systems have traditionally emphasized providing answers over fostering the ability to ask questions, which can hinder critical thinking, creativity, and lifelong learning. Rote memorization, the fear of being wrong, and formulaic thinking are a few problems with this answer-centric education. For example, students are taught that problems are solved by following formulas. In real life, however, problems rarely have single correct answers and often depend on asking the right questions to navigate uncertainty and complexity.
We can encourage a question-centric model by modeling inquiry; facilitators should demonstrate curiosity by asking open-ended questions to encourage exploration and critical thinking. Creating safe spaces where stakeholders feel comfortable asking questions without fear of judgment is also crucial for fostering inquiry.
Here are the key takeaways for you to note:
Better Questions = Better Answers.
Asking the right questions can enable innovation, collaboration, and clarity.
Cultivate Curiosity.
Embrace curiosity as a skill to unlock potential in people and ideas.
Plan Your Questions.
Frame, navigate, and probe to align teams and achieve impactful outcomes.
Recommended Book
Advanced Facilitation is an increasingly important skill in today’s complex and dynamic world because it fosters collaboration, communication, and critical thinking across various domains.
Facilitation is how you get people to solve problems.
For this edition, The Art of Asking Great Questions, I recommend Alwin Put’s book Captains of Leadership. Get it on Amazon.
Also, check out Wicked Problem Solving by Tom Wujec.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this, you’ll love the ideas in my other articles. Feel free to share this newsletter with a colleague.
