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      Asking the Right Questions

      Accountability and good decision making depend on asking the right questions. Leaders who know how to ask the right questions have a greater ability to collect the information and knowledge they need to make good decisions. Think about the questions you should be asking in terms of the Afters of the decision. Afters describe the ultimate goal.

      A developer built a residential neighborhood and hired an architectural firm to design a swimming pool for placement at the entrance of the new community. “A big pool,” he said when explaining the project to the architect. When the firm finished and presented a scale model of their big swimming pool design, the developer paused and then said, “That's not at all what I wanted.” Dismayed, the architect who believed he had followed the builder's request for a big pool asked, “Then what DO you want?”

      What happened next illustrates the concept and importance of Afters. The developer responded, “When a family drives by the new community, I want the children to feel excited by slides and attractions like you'd see at a water park and shout ‘Mom and Dad, I want to live there!’”

      Had the developer started with the Afters before the architect invested time and resources into building a scale model of a large swimming pool, he would have effectively communicated his vision of what has to be achieved as a result of constructing the pool area: “Mom and Dad, I want to live there!” That is the Afters effect, and the Afters effect should always be stated at the beginning of a project, not the end.

      The best way to get exactly what you want, the first time, is to find the Afters by asking future-based questions that focus on results and deliverables. Ask yourself: “What am I looking to achieve?” and “What must happen after this project is done for this to be successful?”

      Next, dig deeper with second-line questions. People are motivated by their wants, but they also need to define what their companies need. Second-line questions reveal the who, what, where, and when of a project or initiative and fill in the blanks to get the whole picture. Subtle phrases such as, “Tell me more,” or “Say more about that” are useful prompts when trying to understand someone else's request. Second-line questions also help to draw out additional information, such as how to prioritize multiple goals or results.

      Finally, when tasked by someone else, after you have asked second-line questions for clarity, ask one more: “Anything else?” and then listen.

      Once the desired results and priorities are determined, repeat the details back to make sure you understood. Give clear options for how the work and results can be achieved and let stakeholders choose their own path to completion.

      Future-based questions can clarify the Afters when asked, and that generally makes communication more productive. Future-based questions you might ask to others or to you yourself include:

      ● What would you love your team to have that they do not have now?

      ● Where do you want to be in 1, 3, 5, or 10 years?

      ● What are you looking to achieve from this?

      The answers to those questions are the Afters, and they do not always come easily. The Afters must be specific and focused on the future. They set a clear vision of what the end result of the project will mean for the organization, so do not stop with the first question. Remember that it is a descriptive picture of the future that you are trying to discover. Merely asking one or two questions is not as helpful, unless those questions help to pinpoint the ultimate success. What has to happen in the future as a result of this project? If this project is going to succeed, what will that look like in the future? Asking future-based questions helps teams drive for results by solidifying the vision and clarifying what the results mean to the organization.

      Imagine that you are assigned to write a report and you ask, “What are you looking to achieve from this report?” The answer to that question and subsequent questions can give you very clear direction on the impact that will later be expected once the report has been completed. It would be a mistake to go, “Great, I'll just go and write your report then!” Without asking the right questions first, you will not have gotten the clarity you need. Second- and third-line questions may also be helpful. Asking the right questions can prevent frustrating rework that occurs when doing first replaces questioning first.

      A series of good questions can also assist managers in communicating more productively with their employees. Consider a single example of asking second, third, fourth, and even fifth questions to genuinely understand work-related situations and engage an employee as you make decisions.

      Additional questions can become second nature to leaders who practice asking follow-up questions. For example, imagine an employee has complained about his involvement on a project team. The manager has asked, “How's the project team doing?”

      “It's not working,” the employee responds.

      The manager then asks a second question, “Oh really? Why do you say that?” You might observe that the employee's response lacked clarity.

      After the manager has asked the follow-up questions, the employee is quick to answer, “Well I'm just not enjoying it very much.”