Power of Questions

Questions are powerful because they can create change. Giving facts and information can be helpful, but questions create transformation, inspire innovation and may result in true change.

Questions can increase commitment and improve the outcome of any situation when you stop preaching and start engaging the other’s brain. And they help to focus thinking. Focusing on thinking can create breakthrough answers.

Questions are powerful because they increase your success when you ask the right questions rather than focusing on the right answers.

They open the mind to what’s possible, while answers close the mind. Neuroscience has shown us that the brain is capable of making complex connections which result in powerful ah-ha’s that lead to action. These ah-ha’s are triggered through questions.

Conversations fall along a continuum from purely competitive to purely cooperative. For example, discussions about the allocation of scarce resources tend to be competitive; those between friends and colleagues are generally cooperative; and others, such managers’ check-ins with employees, are mixed—supportive but also providing feedback and communicating expectations. Here are some challenges that commonly arise when asking and answering questions and tactics for handling them.