This is a guest blog by Pamela A. Scott
Join me as we discuss a group of managers whose task was to share information with staff on how a company decision was made. Their conversation had gone around in circles.
Then one brave soul spoke up. “Do you think it’s likely that we can develop any sort of communication plan by continuing to pool our ignorance about how this decision was made?”
Chris Clarke-Epstein shares that story in her book “78 Important Questions Every Leaders Should Ask and Answer.”
What a great question! I particularly like “continuing to pool our ignorance. . .”
If only all questions were so wonderfully worded.
This blog focuses on asking good questions, a subject near and dear to my heart. And a challenge to just about every one of us. The blog also provides links to good questions already written for you to ask.
Your Prerequisite for This Blog
Before you dig in on how to ask questions, develop your curiosity. Curiosity is the basis for all questions. Young children torture us with their questions of “Why, Mommy?” “Why does it hurt when I fall off my bike, Daddy?” “Why is she looking at me like that?”
The five years of an engineer’s bachelor’s degree program are filled with complex math and science. Indeed, almost all of an engineer’s training pertains to the hard skills they will directly apply to problems in their field during the course of their career. Yet, what most new engineering grads discover as they enter the workforce is that they are woefully under prepared to function in the workplace because they have failed to develop their soft skills.
