3 questions that are slowing down your team and three words to put it right.
The way a question is framed changes how you answer it: it can remove a person’s mental filter, or it can activate it. Whether it’s leading questions in courtroom or an ethnographic interview: the words you choose radically change the information you get back.
Let’s imagine you’ve brought together your team to generate potential solutions to a problem you’re facing. Here are some common questions that will work against you.
“What’s the best way to….”
The concept of ‘best’ means I have to think about multiple responses and identify the best one. My answer here will be judged against perfection — it’s a binary win-lose response that now brings to mind all sorts of social comparison, anxiety and competition with the others in the room.
The result, if I don’t know if my idea is the best, I sure as hell won’t contribute it to the discussion.
“Why can’t we….”
Seemingly innocuous but in reality, this is a question with blame at its heart. When you’re working in a team that may are responsible for the current state of play (even in a small way) — this question can be heard as “Why haven’t we tried this obvious solution?”.
The result, if I feel any responsibility for the current state of play, I have to defend our previous decisions.
“How do we…”
Again, this means I have to internally validate my ideas before sharing them. This reduces the amount of ideas that get thrown in the ring. Don’t we want validated ideas? Sure — eventually, but at the start of a solution you need to go broad and get stimulus and diversity on the table so you can pick the best route forward.
The result? Only the truly confident contribute, leaving the nuanced insights of other team members locked inside their heads.
The solution? How might we.
How might we…. This question has a quiet power for a few reasons. This is one of the tools we use in our Design Sprints when we’re documenting interviews but it’s a powerful way to frame questions in lots of group situations. Let’s take a look…
- How — solution oriented
- Might — let’s just throw stuff out there, it has to answer the brief but doesn’t need to be the best solution, any solution is acceptable. In fact, it doesn’t even need to work — it can be poorly formed if you want. Filters are now removed.
- We….this is about me as well as you. It’s a collective response that should be joined up.
This is an optimistic, can do, collaborative question that opens people’s minds to what could be possible. The result? Filters turn off, people speak up, solutions get tabled.
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