If we don’t discus & ask questions, we don’t learn.
At a recent social event, I heard a husband expressing his mystery as to what his wife was thinking. The more he talked the more obvious it was that they had never discussed the issue in any depth. He continued to wonder when the obvious solution was to ask.
One of the most powerful questions I ask in my consulting is ‘Why are we solving this problem?’ The first answers I get are often a variant of ‘I have been told to solve this problem’. That’s an order not an answer. Taking time to drill into the real rationale reveals richness that improves the project outcomes.
I meet many employees who want to improve their organisations but never discuss their ideas. They want to understand and do better but think it is not their place to ask. Without necessarily wanting to do so, their organisation frustrates the simplest act of autonomy, asking a question.
Without a rich and vibrant conversation about the issues that matter we fail to learn.
