Is your question ability future-ready?
The World Economic Forum's report on skills of the future popped up again in my social media feed over the weekend. The 'Businesses' Top 10 Skill Priorities for 2027' chart grabbed my attention.
As I reviewed the list, one thing struck me: the ability to ask great questions underpins every item in the top 10.
Here are a few practical examples of what I mean:
Analytical thinking means asking questions like:
What is the data telling us?
How could we interpret it? What does it mean?
So what? Why must we pay attention to it?
Creative thinking requires questions like:
How else could we solve that?
What could we learn from another industry to spark some new ideas?
What unrelated concepts could we combine to come up with something new?
AI and Big Data are perhaps the most direct examples of the importance of questions. At an individual level, the quality of our search questions determines the relative value of the responses we receive. Plus, at a system level, we’re faced with ‘big questions’ like:
How can we leverage AI? How can we live our values while leveraging AI?
What are our ethical considerations for AI?
Resilience, flexibility and agility all depend on our ability to reflect and ask ourselves:
What has changed? How can I adapt?
What response would be most effective?
What do I need in order to thrive?
Systems thinking requires an awareness beyond the immediate. It encourages us to lift our thinking to ask:
What is essential to acknowledge about our context?
How is everything connected?
What are the relevant interdependencies?
As leaders, asking great questions has become even more critical than the pressure to know the answers.
But what makes a question 'great'?
First, it’s important to be clear about your purpose and intention. Why are you asking?
From there, you can determine what question you want (or need) to ask. The HBR article, The Art of Asking Smarter Questions (May 2024), identifies 5 domains for strategic questions:
Investigative - What do we know?
Speculative - What if? What else?
Productive - Now what?
Interpretive - So what?
Subjective - What's missing?
Once you’ve determined what you’re asking, you can shift your focus to who, when, and how. We need to consider factors like:
Construction: how well are your questions crafted?
Timing: are you asking at a relevant time?
Audience: are you asking the right person/people?
Tone: how are your questions delivered?
Wisdom: how well do you identify the opportunities to stop asking and listen?
Sequencing: how effectively are you able to structure your inquiry to build upon previous questions?
With all of this in mind, I have a question for you.
How would you rate your question ability?
Would you like some help answering that question? I’m developing a new question audit tool, and you can join the waitlist here.