The smarter the questions you ask, the better decisions you can make
Source: Global View Magazine 2024/06 | Harvard Business Review “The Discipline of Asking Questions” by Arnaud Chevallier, Frédéric Remond, Jean-Louis Barsoux | Compiled by Eason Lee
In today’s rapidly changing environment, asking smart questions has become a key capability for businesses.
This article will explore five categories of strategic questions that should be asked during decision-making: investigative, speculative, generative, interpretive, and reflective.
Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, has built an AI empire through his ability to ask smart questions. In an interview with The New York Times, he stated that the evolution of his leadership style has made him focus more on asking questions rather than providing answers.
“I spend almost all day every day asking questions, constantly probing to help the management team explore ideas they hadn’t realized they needed to explore.”
— Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia
This leadership style emphasizes listening, curiosity, learning, and humility — qualities that are essential for asking high-quality questions. As uncertainty increases for businesses, the ability to ask questions becomes a fundamental skill. The progress of AI has changed the world; where answers used to be important, now it’s the questions being asked that matter.
Here are the five categories of strategic questions, along with detailed explanations:
- Investigative Questions
- Speculative Questions
- Generative Questions
- Interpretive Questions
- Reflective Questions
Investigative Questions Core Question: What is known?
Investigative questions help dig deeper and analyze issues to uncover information that is not so obvious. For example, Toyota’s “Five Whys” method uses consecutive “why” questions to get to the root cause of a problem.
Speculative Questions Core Question: What if…?
Speculative questions encourage broader thinking to find creative solutions. For instance, design firm IDEO systematically uses questions like “How might we…?” to break constraining assumptions.
Generative Questions Core Question: What’s the next step?
Generative questions assess whether there are sufficient resources (talent, capabilities, time) to implement a plan. These questions impact decision speed, rollout of initiatives, and pace of growth.
Interpretive Questions Core Question: So…?
Interpretive questions help construct the meaning of an issue, promoting integration and action. They allow continual reframing of the core subject, like assessing Tesla’s competitiveness not just on technological shortcomings but its innovative appeal.
Reflective Questions Core Question: What has been left unsaid?
Reflective questions address personal concerns and emotions, often overlooked but potentially impacting decision direction. Leaders need to create a safe space for team members to voice their worries.
In Conclusion: How to Improve Questioning Ability? To enhance questioning ability, leaders should self-assess their questioning styles and adjust their question repository for better balance. Through diverse questioning, they can guide teams to uncover and solve key issues while avoiding blind spots.
Huang’s success embodies the importance of questioning. He believes leadership is about getting everyone to ask and answer questions. This questioning culture sparks creativity and problem-solving in teams.
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