How to Ask Amazing Questions

“It’s the questions we can’t answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he’ll look for his own answers.”

– Patrick Rothfuss

One of my favorite coaches taught me to approach a new project by considering first how much I knew about it. It was a great exercise.

You start by drawing a circle that represents the face of a clock.

The time from high noon to around 2 o’clock represents what you already know about the project.

So far so good.

The time between 2 o’clock and around 5 o’clock represents what you know you don’t know.

This is where you educate, act and perfect.

But, here’s the most interesting thing to think about.

The time between 5 o’clock and 12 o’clock – more than one half of the clock face — is the stuff you don’t even know you don’t know.

The funny thing is, I don’t remember exactly what point he was trying make. Other than to let me know it was okay that I didn’t know everything.

But it got me thinking.

How do you figure out what you don’t know?

And how do you know what questions to ask? There is no right answer in my humble opinion. Do you remember how many questions you asked as a kid? How creative you were?

That’s a good place to start.

Shift Your Thinking

Maybe you shouldn’t be thinking at all. You already know what you know. The question is, what don’t you know? If you showed your project to your kid, what do think his or her top 5 questions would be? Can you even explain your project to a kid? Try it.

The Billionaire

If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you be doing right now? Let’s say the project you are working on is so wildly successful you’ve just become a billionaire. Now what questions are you asking?

Hold on. Questions about your project, not whether or not your yacht should have a helicopter pad. On second thought, that might be a great question. Why do you need a helicopter?

How Would Somebody Else Do It?

Oprah, Mahatma Gandhi, Alfred Hitchcock, Walt Disney, Jack Nicholson, Darth Vader and Jon Stewart would all throw a different party. Who do you think would come? What food would they serve? What party games would they play?

How would your project look with any of these people in the lead? One thing is for sure, they would all bring a different perspective.

Be an Impostor

Do some role playing. In your chosen role what would you have to know in order to not be exposed as a fraud? What trick questions are people going to ask you? How do you look? How are you behaving? Be your own devil’s advocate. What better way to get external evidence of your competence?

Loosen Up

Elbert Hubbard said it best, “Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.”

My little brother was the “What if” kid. He had the most wacky questions. He made us laugh all the time. And he never stopped asking questions.

Sometime it’s a good thing to go back to that way of thinking.

We’ll never know it all. No one does. Some questions simply have no answers. But they will teach us how to think.

How do you look at what you’re doing in a fresh way?

What do you do to break out of habitual thinking?

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