The Art of Asking Smart Questions
To be an innovative leader regardless of a job role, there are some particular skills and competences to develop and improve as the time passes. The more you practice, the better you become. The research has come up with the concept that asking smart questions take you closer to effective decision making, making you a leader in creative activities such as innovation development and problem-solving. More than half of the attributes of an innovative mindset requires the cognitive ability to ask smart questions.
The 5 Domains of Strategic Thinking
What Questions To Ask In Each Domain
What happened?
Why isn’t working?
What are the causes of the problem?
How feasible and desirable is each option?
What evidence supports our proposed plan to correct it?
Applying Smart Questions
to Real-World Examples
Investigative: What's Known?
Creative leaders define a problem by asking 'why' 5 times until they reach all the possible issues and make clear distinctions between symptoms and root causes. Stubborn or recurrent problems are often symptoms of deeper issues. Although quick fixes may seem convenient at particular cases, they solve only the surfaces problems and not addresses the real causes. This explains why solutions usually deal with the symptoms, while counter-measures, that are used in the '5 Whys Analysis' are sets of corrective actions to prevent the problem from arising again. Now, let's take an example. A company's website is down so a strategic approach to solve this problem is by asking 5 questions while in parallel applying the relevant counter-measures:
1. Why did it happen?
It run out of memory.
Counter-Measure: Get the site up and running ASAP.
2. Why did it run out of memory?
Because it was incorrectly configured.
Counter-Measure: Create a SOP to verify configuration before every update.
3. Why was it incorrectly configured?
Because the site administrator made a mistake.
Counter-Measure: Make sure site admin knows how to run the new verification.
4. Why did the site administrator make a mistake?
Because the development team hadn't provided adequate instructions.
Counter-Measure: Train the development team to provide clear and sufficient instructions.
5. Why hadn't the development team provided adequate instructions?
Because they assumed it was obvious.
Counter-Measure: Have a word with the development team manager and establish the relevant procedures.
The ‘5 Whys’ Analysis can be used for:
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Troubleshooting
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Quality improvement
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Problem-solving for simple or moderately difficult problems
It may not be suitable for complex or critical problems that could be addressed with the traditional Root Cause Analysis method.
Speculative: What If?
Imagine now that an HR department is working on an employee retention strategy, although the majority of people seem to be highly engaged in the workplace. In any case and regardless of their engagement metrics, they have to generate 'what if' questions to see things from a broader perspective and manage the unpredictable.
Generate 'what if question': What if most talented people would leave the company?
Generate answer: Talented employees might leave for competitors offering better compensation or growth opportunities.
Generate ideas: (a) Develop a competitive compensation package and career development programmes to address potential turnover from talented employees. (b) Build the employer brand to strengthen employee morale and attract new talent. (c) Conduct exit interviews to help HR Managers understand the true reasons behind any resignation.
Select ideas: (a) Design the deliver a Retention Strategy to ensure long-term loyalty through fair compensation schemes.
Implement ideas: Redesign the compensation package to remain competitive based on exit interviews insights, industry benchmarks and career development expectations.