qustioning culture dec2011

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WHYSHOULD I

QUESTION?

The author tells us why it makessense to ask the right questions tolead the right way...

2 4 The Business Enterprise | Nov 2011

NLIGHTEN



‘Bhoruka Steel does it again: It has

once again broken its own record and tapped

the heat in 55 minutes flat.’ I still remember

this ad released by a Bhoruka supplier during

the eighties not just because I was working forBhorukas then but because of the precious

lessons I learnt during my initial years of my

career there. The most significant one came

from the then production head, N R Pai.

Every record the melters made, be it tapping

the heats in record time (heat is the time taken

from loading the furnace with raw materials to

the time of tapping the liquid metal into the

ladle) or reducing the consumption of power or

materials, it can be attributed to the leadership

of Pai. His style was simple –he had a way of

asking questions in a very non-threatening style – to bring out the seemingly irrelevant data, to

trigger thinking and to induce learning.

Why A How Leadership:Bold red-inked ‘why’s marked by Pai in the

previous day’s log book would form the basis

for most discussions during his meetings. His

daily meetings with the shift managers (who

took pride in calling themselves melters) would

happen during the overlap time of the first and

seconds shift. Although night shift in-charges

were exempted from the meeting, most often

they would find their way to it, not minding

their weariness. Pai would swing his whys and

hows between metallurgists and melters and thus

melding theory and practice. Whys helped in

identifying the cause for deviations and bring

them into control so that the set standards were

always met. When melters performed better than

the standards or broke the old records, Pai never

forgot to pat their backs. But he did not stop

there – he translated the new record into a new

learning by asking a series of hows. The learning

helped others to replicate the new record and the

new record became a new standard.

Leading With QuestionsMy early lessons on ‘leadership by questioning’

were reinforced when I happened to read the

book ‘Leading with Questions’ by Michael

Marquardt, an internationally noted educator

and consultant. Here are a few things I got from

the book:

Leadership is not about knowing all the answers.

It’s about knowing what great questions to

ask, and carefully listening to those answers.

Leadership is about asking great questions –

questions that inspire, motivate and empowerthe organisation. Astute leaders use questions

to encourage full participation in teamwork, to

spur innovation and outside-the-box thinking,

to empower others, to build relationships

with customers, to solve problems, and more.

Questions wake people up. They prompt new

ideas. They show people new places, new ways

of doing things. They help us admit that we

don’t know all the answers. They help us become

more confident communicators.

LWQ provides a comprehensive foundation

on ways to employ questions effectively whenleading others. The book offers a variety of

principles and strategies for asking questions

as well as numerous stories on how leaders have

used questions to attain organisational success

and personal fulfillment.

From an early age, we are discouraged from

asking questions, be it at home or school, as they

are considered rude, inconsiderate or intrusive.

As we ask fewer questions, we become ever less

comfortable and competent in asking questions.

When we become leaders, we feel that it is

important for us to have the answers rather than

questions. The failure to ask questions can lead

to a distorted sense of reality.

Questioning Culture:Leaders need to create a questioning climate

where employees feel safe and able to trust

the system and the people involved. Without

this level of safety and comfort, people are

generally unwilling to be vulnerable, and to be

comfortable answering questions that might

seem threatening. Leaders, through questions,

can build a culture in which questions are

welcomed, assumptions are challenged, and newways to solve problems are explored. Questions

establish an inquiring culture in organisations,

and such an inquiry and culture builds a learning

organisation.

Questions also build a culture of accountability.

When we ask questions of others and invite

them to search for answers with us, we’re

not just sharing information, we are sharing

responsibility. When responsibility is shared,

ideas are shared, problems become shared –

problems and not yours or mine anymore.

Asking questions results in empowerment andshared ownership of results.

Six hallmarks of questioning culture:When an organisation has a questioning culture,

the people in it

• Are willing to admit, “I don’t know.”

• Go beyond allowing questions; they encourage

questions.

• Are helped to develop the skills needed to ask

questions in a positive way.

• Focus on asking empowering questions andavoid disempowering questions.

• Emphasize the process of asking questions

and searching for answers rather than finding the

“right” answers.

• Accept and reward risk taking.

Questions serve as the foundation for increasing

individual, team, and organisational learning.

Learning depends on curiosity and asking

questions. Questions, especially challenging

ones, cause us to think and to learn. When we

open our eyes and minds to the perspective of

others, we open ourselves to learning.

Questions encourage and enable individuals

and groups to understand, to clarify, and

to open up new avenues of exploration for

solving problems. They provide new insights

and ideas for strategic actions and potential

paths for solutions. Questions and responses to

those questions provide necessary and valuable

information to solve problems faster and make

better decisions.

Empowering QuestionsA key for leaders in asking questions is contextual:

“what do I want my question to accomplish?”One of the reasons that questions cause trouble

is that we often ask questions that disempower

others, that is, those questions that focus on

the reasons why the person did not or cannot

succeed, for example: Why are you behind

schedule? Empowering questions, on the other

hand, get people to think and allow them to

Nov 2011 | The Business Enterprise 2 5



discover their own answers, thus developing self-

responsibility and transference of ownership for

the results. Empowering questions build positive

attitudes and self-esteem. Empowering questions

help develop alignment within teams and draw

out the optimum performance from individualmembers and the team as a whole. They create

a high-energy, high-trust environment and

enable people to identify, clarify, and express

their wants or needs. Such questions encourage

people to take risks, nurture deep relationships,

and dissolve resistance to change.

•How do you feel about the project thus far?

•How would you describe the way you want this

project to turn out?

•Which of these objectives do you think will be

easiest to accomplish? Which will be the most

difficult?

Effective questions: Effective questions

are those that accomplish their purpose as well

as build a positive relationship between the

questioner and the questionee. There are many

types of open ended questions:

Why questions.These are perhaps the most

important types of open-ended questions for

leaders to ask as these questions force everyone

to go into deeper layers of cause and effect, and

of purposes and assumptions. When asking

why questions, the leaders should watch theirtone of voice. The why question should indicate

curiosity and the search for knowledge, and not

anger or frustration.

Explorative questions, on the other hand,

open up new avenues and insights and lead to

new explorations: have you explored or thought

of?

Affective questions invite members to

share feelings about an issue: How do you feel

about leaving this job?

Refective questions encourage moreexploration and elaboration: You said there are

difficulties with your manager; what do you

think causes these difficulties?

Probing questions invite the person or

group to go more deeply into a particular

issue. Words such as describe, explain, clarify,

elaborate, or expand get into more depth or

breadth on a topic.

Bharat Gopalan

The author is a Learning and Development

professional with about two decades of

experience in designing and delivering training

interventions for individual transformations

and organisational development. He isdeemed as a national resource person by the

GoI for conducting ‘train the trainer’ course:

Direct Trainer’s Skills. He presently steers the

L & D practice for a cement major in South

India.

Fresh questionschallenge basic assumptions:

has this ever been tried?

Questions that create connections establish a

systems perspective: What are the consequences

of these actions?

Analytical questions examine causes andnot just symptoms: Why has this happened?

Clarifying questions help free us from

ambiguity, but such questions are sometimes

difficult to ask: What specifically did you mean

by that?

Building a Questioning Culture:The goal for the inquiring leader is to change

the corporate culture from one of telling to one

of asking, to help everyone see and understand

that questions need to become their primarycommunications tool. How can a leader

develop a questioning culture? Here are some

strategies that can build a powerful learning and

questioning culture:

• Start at the top. The questioning culture must

begin with the most senior leaders, who model

the frequent use of good questions.

• Create an environment that enables the people

to challenge the status quo, take risks, and ask

more questions.

• Connect the values and processes of the

organisation to the use of questions.

• Optimise the opportunities to ask questionsby building questioning into every business

activity, including formal and informal meetings,

sales calls, and conferences with clients, or

presentations.

• Report and appreciate questioners; promote

risk-taking and tolerate mistakes.

• Provide training for people to be better at it

and more comfortable in asking questions.

Successful leaders go beyond asking questions;

they work to create an environment in which

everyone can ask and be asked questions. This

means, first of all, that they focus on fostering aclimate where employees still feel safe in asking

questions and able to trust the system and the

people involved.

For further reading:

Leading With Questions -How Leaders Find

the Right Solutions by Knowing What to Ask

By Michael Marquardt

2 6 The Business Enterprise | Nov 2011

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qustioning culture dec2011

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