Summary notes of The Art of Powerful Questions - Catalyzing Insight, Innovation, and Action
"Questions can be like a lever you use to pry open the stuck lid on a paint can ... If we have a short lever, we can only just crack open the lid on the can. But if we have a longer lever, or a more dynamic question, we can open that can up much wider and really stir things up.... If the right question is applied, and it digs deep enough, then we can stir up all the creative solutions.”
More-powerful words to less-powerful words:
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Why, how, what
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Who, when, where
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Which, yes/no, true/false
A powerful question can:
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Generate curiosity and conversation
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Surface assumptions and expectations
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Invite creativity and possibility
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Generate energy and movement
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Focus attention and inquiry
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Evoke deeper meanings and more questions
A powerful team can:
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Create a climate of discovery
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Explore underlying assumptions and beliefs
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Listen for connections among ideas
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Encourage diverse perspectives and contributions
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Articulate shared understanding
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Harvest and share collective discoveries
Get a feel for the larger context in which you are operating. Scan the internal and external environments that may affect the future of the system orp roject you are working with. This situation analysis might include the assessment of critical results data, meetings with key stakeholders, and the mapping of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It might also involve looking for “signals” — internal and external events, developments, and trends that can affect the future of your situation.
Once you think you’ve posed most of the relevant questions (and there may be many of them), look for patterns and themes. You are seeking the core questions — usually three to five — that, if answered, would make the most difference to the future of the project or situation you are exploring.
Ask yourself "What would our situation look like or be like if the ‘big questions’ were answered?" Creating vivid images of possibility differs from pie-in-the-sky visioning, especially if people with a variety of perspectives have participated in the earlier stages of your analysis. This part of the conversation can also provide clues for refining or reframing your big questions, as well as inventing creative strategies. Developing scenarios — stories of the future based on different ways your bigquestions might be answered — can also be useful.
Workable strategies begin to emerge in response to compelling question sand to the images of possibility that these questions evoke. In a sense, such strategies are the “big answers” — the key initiatives you invent to address your “big questions”. Once you clarify key initiatives, you can formulate and implement specific action plans.
What question, if answered, could make the most difference to the future of (your specific situation)?
What’s important to you about (your specific situation) and why do you care?
What draws you/us to this inquiry?
What’s our intention here? What’s the deeper purpose (the big “why”) that is really worthy of our best effort?
What opportunities can you see in (your specific situation)?
What do we know so far/still need to learn about(your specific situation)?
What are the dilemmas/opportunities in (your specific situation)?
What assumptions do we need to test or challenge here in thinking about (your specific situation)?
What would someone who had a very different set of beliefs than we do say about (your specific situation)?
What’s taking shape? What are you hearing underneath the variety of opinions being expressed? What’s in the center of the table?
What’s emerging here for you? What new connections are you making?
What had real meaning for you from what you’ve heard? What surprised you? What challenged you?
What’s missing from this picture so far? What is it we’re not seeing? What do we need more clarityabout?
What’s been your/our major learning, insight, or discover so far?
What’s the next level of thinking we need to do?
If there was one thing that hasn’t yet been said in order to reach a deeper level of understanding/clarity, what would that be?
What would it take to create change on this issue?
What could happen that would enable you/us to feel fully engaged and energized about (your specific situation)?
What’s possible here and who cares? (rather than "What’s wrong here and who’s responsible?")
What needs our immediate attention going forward?
If our success was completely guaranteed, what bold steps might we choose?
How can we support each other in taking the next steps? What unique contribution can we eachmake?
What challenges might come our way and howmight we meet them?
What conversation, if begun today, could ripple out in a way that created new possibilities for the future of (your situation)?
What seed might we plant together today that could make the most difference to the future of (your situation)?
Is this question relevant to the real life and real work of the people who will be exploring it?
Is this a genuine question — a question to which we really don’t know the answer?
What “work” do I want this question to do? That is, what kind of conversation, meanings, and feelings do I imagine this question will evoke in those who will be exploring it?
Is this question likely to invite fresh thinking/feeling? Is it familiar enough to be recognizable and relevant — and different — enough to call forward a new response?
What assumptions or beliefs are embedded in the way this question is constructed?
Is this question likely to generate hope, imagination, engagement, creative action, and new possibilities, or is it likely to increase a focus on past problems and obstacles?
Does this question leave room for new and different questions to be raised as the initial question is explored?
