Unlocking Powerful Question to Accelerate Team Growth
As a Leader or Manager, we often got question from our team about problems / issues that need to be solved. Sometimes we tempted to give them the solutions so the issues can be solved faster. Do you think this approach is good or not? If it’s for quick “firefighting”, then it’s good. But what about for long-term team growth?
A Catalyst Leader ask powerful questions to their team so they can grow to be self-organized and can solve the issues by themselves. Usually they know the solutions because they are the one who are doing the work on daily basis, while the leader usually only know on high-level. A leader can trigger it by asking powerful question.
What is Powerful Question?
Powerful Question is a question that is open-ended, non-judging, reflective, provocative and helps explore new ideas about possibilities.
Examples of NOT Powerful Questions :
- Who is responsible for this issue?
- When it will be fixed?
- Can you fix this issue?
Those examples are limiting the answers, you can only answer a name, date and a yes-no.
Now let’s see the examples of Powerful Questions :
- What do you think is the cause of this issue?
- What are the concrete actions you can put in place next?
- If you can do everything, what will you do?
Those powerful questions allows them to be creative and empowered them to explore opportunities and make decision.
How to Unlock Powerful Questions
One of the method that leaders can use and practice is using a Model developed by Karl-Tomm, a Canadian psychologist. Karl-Tomm approach help us understand that each of us has a different understanding and perspective of the facts in a given situation.
In this Figure, the model shows two axis, the horizontal axis is Time: Past to Future. Vertical axis shows Simple assumptions towards the top, and towards the bottom, it is Complex assumptions. Let’s discuss more detail about the assumptions.
Simple Assumptions : This is also called the linear world, where we understand the cause and effect clearly, and there is no room for ambiguity. Anyone involved in the process can easily understand and perceive what is the effect of a cause.
Complex Assumptions : This is a nonlinear world where we cannot draw a straight line between a cause and effect. For one cause there could be multiple effects. Furthermore, the people involved in the process can have multiple interpretations of the effect.
Using this Time and Assumption Axis, there are 4 Quadrants, which each quadrant can guide us on how we can practice the Powerful Question.
Quadrant 1 : Past-Oriented Simple Questions (Detective)
In the first quadrant, use “detective” as your persona. As a detective, ask simple questions to find the fact that happened in the past and gather data from it. Here are few example questions for this quadrant :
- What is the problem?
- What specific situation does this problem occur?
- When did the problem happened?
Quadrant 2 : Past-Oriented Complex Questions (Anthropologist)
In the second quadrant, use “Anthropologist” as your persona. Sometimes different people have their observation, interpretation and perspectives. Ask questions to find different realities and perspectives based on their answers. Here are few example questions for this quadrant :
- What do you think the reason is for their action?
- What would you do in a situation like this?
- What are the team members doing?
- How long will you allow this problem to continue?
Quadrant 3 : Future-Oriented Complex Questions (Future Researcher)
In the third quadrant, use “Future Researcher” as your persona. In this quadrant, you switch the questions from past-oriented to future-oriented. Ask questions that allow people to visualize the possibilities and explore different scenarios. Here are few example questions for this quadrant :
- What do you think the team believe is the solution to this?
- If you can do anything, what would you do?
- If the team started taking on more responsibility , what actions would they perform?
Quadrant 4 : Future-Oriented Simple Questions (Captain)
In the fourth and last quadrant, use “Captain” as your persona. Ask simple question that lead the team focus on next steps or actions that were already decided. Here are few example questions for this quadrant :
- What are the concrete actions you can put in place next?
- Whom should you talk to, in order to solve this?
Diverge-Converge
If you’re familiar with Design Thinking or Human-Centered Design (HCD) practices, Diverge-Converge is the technique used in Double Diamond Model of Design Thinking (see figure below).
Divergence is the process of exploring and generating a wide range of ideas and possibilities. Convergent thinking refers to the process of selecting, evaluating, and refining the most promising ideas from the divergent phase. It involves narrowing down and refining possibilities by selecting the best ideas and combining them to create a coherent and effective solution.
Diverge-Converge technique can help you in asking Powerful Questions :
- Diverge when shifting from Quadrant 1 to Quadrant 2 (one reality to many realities) to create choices.
- Converge when shifting from Quadrant 3 to Quadrant 4 (many realities to one reality) to make choices.
Closing
Asking Powerful Questions can unlocks learning and unleash the true potential of a person by triggering the right question. Karl-Tomm model is really practical and easy to use.
I hope you enjoyed learning How to Unlock Powerful Questions. If you have any feedback or want to share the similar experience about this topic, please comment below.
