How Solving Your Problems is as Easy as Asking the Right Questions
How many more problems could you have solved if you’d only taken the time to step back, pause, and ask the right question?
Problems are easy to find, but solutions can be hard. Many of us have a fear of failure, and this is where negative thoughts work their way into our subconscious mind. Our co-founders Justas Janauskas and Gabija Grušaitė put it this way, “When we have a problem, we have a tendency to close up and not want to speak about it”, explains Justas. “What we want to encourage people to do is to reach out to somebody who has relative experience, talk to them, and move forward.” Gabija adds that “Sometimes it’s not providing the answers, but more asking the right question, then the person can think about their situation from a new angle.”
The takeaway from this is that it’s important not to dwell on the issue at hand as this can make the solution even harder to come by. We need to be brave enough to open ourselves up to the possibility of help from others. Simply asking the right questions can allow us to learn more that we ever thought possible.
Many of us face recurring problems and the reason that these problems return time after time is because we’re not using the right techniques to combat them. Problem-solving is a skill that we can strengthen using the resources we have available to us and understanding the areas in which we can improve.
Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”, and this is why it’s so important that we never stop learning. We should never reach a point where we feel that there is nothing left to learn and we shouldn’t worry that asking questions makes us look weak or vulnerable. Sometimes an outsider’s perspective is just what we need.
One of our time’s great thinkers and innovators Bill Gates uses questioning to assist as a method of problem-solving.
It’s said that Gates’ executives at Microsoft undertook training on what is called Precision Questioning and Precision Answering. Gates would ask so many questions that this skill allowed his interviewees to provide him with concise, but more detailed answers that he could use to make informed decisions. It also enabled him to be aware of various perspectives, allowing the problem to be viewed from multiple angles.
In Business, it’s essential that CEO’s and leaders of industry make good use of their networks, both internal and external. However, not all of us are so fortunate to have this wealth of information to hand. “Most successful people are those that are able to learn very quickly,” explains Justas, “So in any kind of situation, they’re able to adapt and find the way out. If they’re in a difficult situation, they’ll always reach out to their network and collaborate. The top 1% of the richest or well-connected people in the world can reach out to almost anyone for help.”
People like the aforementioned Gates, certainly know how to leverage the smart people around them! With Qoorio we want everyone to have the opportunity to work in the same way. Our marketplace of knowledge allows anyone to search for and connect with, other humans, wherever they may be to continue their learning path or find the solution that’s been eluding them thus far. We have a lot to learn from others and want to approach knowledge sharing as the human-to-human interaction it should be.
This was certainly the case for our COO Donatas Tamelis. Before joining the team at Qoorio, Donatas ran a digital performance agency. When wanting to solve an issue related to the turnover of his staff, he sought out an expert on Qoorio.
Donatas explains, “I had very straightforward and practical questions. I had just one meeting and got the answers that I was looking for. It wasn’t that they were able to provide me with the specific answer that I could apply the next day, but they provoked the right thinking about how I should analyse and approach the problem. They provided an angle that I hadn’t even thought of before and it allowed me to think about HR very differently.”
Donatas offers a good example of the kind of interaction we wish to encourage through our community — approaching problems proactively, finding the relevant person to speak to and engaging them with the right questions. A meet doesn’t always need to solve your issue right away. Sometimes an encounter can open up a new train of thought that allows you to proceed in a way you hadn’t considered before.
The right question can help to point us in the right direction. We often need guidance on the best way to proceed, especially if it’s regarding something that we’re inexperienced with. We might have the right question to ask, but not access to the person that could answer our question. Our community at Qoorio helps to remove the boundaries that have held us back and offers access to the previously inaccessible.
Speaking of the previously inaccessible, our Head of product, Ronaldas Buožis recently advised a student interested in the world of filmmaking. Ronaldas co-directed the feature-length documentary “Rūta” in 2018 and so has plenty to share on the subject. “She wanted to chat, to know how to get enough courage to make a documentary film”. He explains that “because of my experience it was easy for me to sit down for 45 minutes with her and give advice on the steps that need to be taken.”
Reflecting on his early career Ronaldas tells me that “As a photographer and filmmaker the concept of reaching out to others is quite common. You reach out to people and you want to meet them, to talk about the craft or how they started their business. So what I was doing 10 years ago was trying to reach directors and cinematographers and get them to meet me for coffee, I just wanted more information on filmmaking. “Qoorio is mind-blowing because that kind of access is hard to find.”
Often, it is as simple as asking the right questions, however, you also need access to the right people. With Qoorio, everyone has the opportunity to ask the right person the right question. No single piece of knowledge needs to be out of reach. We want to encourage our natural curiosity, open up new opportunities and at the same time begin closing the knowledge gap that has appeared in recent years.
If more of us participated in thriving communities focused on the sharing of knowledge, think about how much we could grow collectively as humans, how many more problems could be solved, and how many new opportunities might be created! All we have to do is ask the right question, to the right person!
