When we approach planning as a question-based process, there are many ways we can form new questions, including consideration of Ideas, hopes, wishes, concerns, problems, worries, obstacles, threats, decisions, research, uncertainty, expectations, assumptions, curiosity. All of these can be translated into questions that inspire and organize the process. The whole process of any kind of planning has optimum value and velocity when it's question based.
The power of questions
There is a direct relationship between the quality of our experience and the quality of questions we work from.
Questions live on a continuum from unripe to rotten.
Unripe: they are premature, not ready to be useful; they have potential but need to be developed to be useful.
Ripe: they are useful, actionable in the present through research
Rotten: they are old and only capable of old insights; not useful
It only makes sense to work from ripe questions.
Walking around a problem
Problems are bundles of uncertainty and ambiguity. Solving for any kind of problem is an unbundling of the questions implied. There are always more unknowns than knowns.
Naming all the questions we can is what it means to walk about a problem. Each new perspective reveals new possibilities of clarity in understanding and action. Curiosity unfolds a realistic understanding of the possibilities and actions.
This is the opposite of attacking a problem with the brainstorming of opinions, solutions, counter opinions and counter solutions. These are often assumption based and therefore sources of confusion rather than clarity. Clarity is the result of curiosity, one iteration of new questions at a time.
Question genres
There are two genres of questions in converations, meetings and virtual discussions: kind and toxic.
Kind questions are questions of:
- Honestly seeking understanding of other people's good and goodness, concerns
- Revealing the upsides to an idea, the lessons learned from success and progress
- Inviting exploration of options
- Offering help, support, clarity, value
Toxic questions are questions of:
- Making someone appear uninformed, not knowledgeable, not credible
- Appearing to be more authoritative than others
- Gaining or regaining control over a conversation
- Thinly veiled criticism or rejection