Sound dumb, doesn’t it? I mean, come on: How do you ask a question?
When I ask participants in my workshops, I get a lot of blank stares.
Sometimes, people will talk about open or closed questions, or even bad questions.
Those are types, they’ve nothing to do with HOW.
Some people say they were taught HOW at school, usually in two steps.
First: start with one of the six most common adverbs: who, what, where, when, why or how.
Second: add the iconic swirly punctuation mark at the end.
Ok – an accurate but pretty elementary response, and still, it doesn’t go far enough. In fact, it’s pretty obvious most of us aren’t taught how to ask a question. In fact, I think most people just say whatever comes to mind and hope for the best.
Here’s what that’s a big problem.
At any point in your lifetime, have you ever asked a bad question? (Perhaps you even knew at the time it was a crap question.)
From this bad question, did you get a good answer? Was the information in the answer good?
No! A bad enquiry will get you a bad answer, period. In the same way that a vague question will get you vague answer.
That’s not even the worst part. We asked a bad question, we got a bad answer/bad information. Then, we made a decision based on bad information.
Is it just me, or does that seem like the wrong thing to do?
It's a Recipe with Two Steps
It’s fairly obvious to me, but if you want to be successful, learn HOW to ask a good question.
Happily, it’s a simple recipe.
I don’t remember any of the details except it was a crappy airline magazine on a crappy airline flight, many years ago.
I want to say the article was written by, or featured, Oprah Winfrey. Maybe.
As for whatever else was in the article, I don’t know … but I have never forgotten the recipe.
Here’s HOW to ask a question.
One: What specific information do you want?
Two: Write a specific question that – when asked – will get you that specific information.
Back to Oprah for a moment. I remember one episode where she was talking about interviewing celebrities.
As she said: If I don’t know what I want to get out of the interview, how can I possibly ask a good question?
The Stupidest Phrase Ever
Related to this, here’s the worst phrase in business that takes the enamel off my teeth.
You can look really smart by asking a dumb question.
No, you don’t!
Has anyone ever asked you a dumb question? I’ll bet money you didn’t think: Oh wow, this person is really smart.
Here’s a thought. Look smart by asking a smart question.
Side note: Here’s an excellent article on this topic in the Harvard Business Review. (You may need a subscription.)
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