The quality of our questions

Growth Facilitator, Robert, was a guest on a radio programme Wednesday evening along with the Cabinet Secretary in the previous government. He reported to me, for as usual I was not listening to the radio, that the former Cabinet Secretary was speaking about what the current government needs to do in terms of holding public sector employees accountable. After awhile, somewhat exasperated, Robert blurted out "Then why didn’t you take these steps when you were in power"? The radio host "shushed" Robert and quickly changed the course of the conversation.

This is something we have been noticing - that whenever someone attempts to ask an official of the previous government why they did not do what they are now advocating, it is seen as a personal, unfair and even rude attack. As I reflected on this instance, it occurs to me that Robert’s question wa neither rude nor disrespectful, but was actually very important in opening the door to learning and improvement. If the question had been answered it would have revealed the issues that hindered the previous government from taking the necessary steps for accountability. To the extent that those situations still exist, then it would be important learning about the key to solving the problem today. Failure to ask and answer questions like these mean that we are forever doomed to ask the same questions, at the same level without the benefit of insight. And we know that if we keep on doing the same things, we will certainly get the same results - no surprise therefore that our country continues to run with very little accountability!

Questions are the tool of the facilitator. We are trained to ask insightful, meaningful, relevant and probing questions. The question is where the expert facilitator begins. At Growth Facilitators we spend many hours pondering the right Focus Question for a workshop. We know that we could design a very successful workshop in terms of answering a question, but if the question is the wrong one, then we would have wasted everyone’s time. Without the right question, one will surely get the wrong solution (if any at all). Flowing from the Focus Question is a series of other questions that take the participants into deeper and deeper thought and probing. Sometimes the questions are tough and uncomfortable - but that is when the big breakthroughs occur!

One of my favourite quotes that guides my life is by Anthony Robbins, the reknown motivational guru: "The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask". As individuals and as a nation we need to improve the quality of the questions we ask. We need to ask questions that incite and invite, that challenge and probe, that stop us in our tracks, that blow us away, that leave us speechless. The answer to such questions is not about blame, recrimination or vindictiveness – the answer is about deepening our learning, growing our minds and developing the capability and capacity to significantly improve our lives. That’s how we build a nation – by asking, and answering, the tough questions.