Questions are often driven by curiosity or a passion to know more. Sometimes, asking the right question is even more important than thinking that you have the right answer. Your willingness to ask and the type of questions you ask often reflect on your personality.
Always consider the 5Ws when you ask a question:
- What you want out of it – do you truly expect an answer to collect more information or to understand better some topic. Do you want to ask the question simply to grab attention? Do you want to ask a question to test the respondent? Is there actually a ‘correct’ answer? As an instructor or teacher, I like to use questions to encourage participation as well as get the kids attention. I don’t really care if they have the right answer – all I want is for them to dare to try and reason through it. Sure, there are also times when we may grumble a question like “Why do they keep raising the gas prices” where we don’t expect any answers.
- Who you are asking – if you want a real answer to your question, you have to find someone qualified or at least someone who is interested in finding the answer. If you are trying to cause changes, you need to make sure you are asking the right person.
- When are you asking the question? For example, asking for “Can we go somewhere else?” is good only when you are at a planning stage and not that good when you are already on the plane heading towards a planned destination. Or if when you know your boss is under a lot of pressure and a project is late, it may not be the best time to discuss your promotion. The mental state of the respondent is important to make sure you are getting a true response.
- How are you asking? – not only the tone of the voice but if you start your question by saying “How come you don’t ….”, it will start the other person in a defensive mindset. For example, one time I am trying to redirect people traffic away from a rare bird, instead of giving orders like “Please move to the side”, I told people “There is a rare bird in front but if you walk to one side slowly, you should be able to take a picture of it”.
- Where is the best place to ask the question – this angle is closely associated with “when”. Some specific location may help set the mood for a favorable answer. For example, don’t ask your girl friend to marry you while in a super market. Don’t ask certain personal questions when there are other listeners.
The “right” question, with or without answers, can have long lasting impacts. Some examples that came to mind are:
- “why does the apple fall down and not up?”
- “How can I harness the sun’s energy” leads to solar technologies
- “How can I make use of the internet” leads to companies like Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, etc.
- “What is out there besides earth?”
- “Is there a better way to do things?”
Sometimes, a question sets the tone of a whole course of action. If you read murder mysteries, the worst that a detective can do is to start with a bad assumption and instead of asking “Who is the killer?” ask the question of “What evidence can I get to confirm such a person as the prime suspect?”. Confirmation bias (where you are discarding data that contradicts and only accept data that supports his theory) kicks in and will influence your path of investigation and findings.
Exercise
This blog is an extension to an old 2016 blog “Asking the right question“. I recommend re-reading it to see it from a slightly different angle.
I think the habit of asking questions is especially important in martial arts. In my own journey, I always ask the question “why” or “why not”. “What separates us from other internal styles”. “Am I adding value or just blindly following?”. What are the underlying assumptions? Does it apply to only one instance or is there a general principle behind that makes a skill applicable in more situations.
Write down some useful or relevant questions and your thoughts on it: 1) training 2) hostile encounters.
You have a week to complete. Sep 16th 2018.