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Dave Buffenbarger (hi Dave!) comments:
>People think the question asker knows THE answer and is just
>using the question as way to set people up (entrap them) and
>make them feel foolish. Doesn't matter if an answer follows the
>question or not.
>Interesting phenonemon - Ask a question of another person in
>a meeting. Even explain the reason why the question is being
>asked. A common response IMHO is 'Why are you asking that
>question?' within seconds of the questioner having stated the
>reason why.
What a difference between the way we use questions in the corporate
setting and the way a child uses questions to learn. In the book,
_Creativity in Business_, the authors, Michael Ray and Rochelle Myers,
tell of a four year old asking the following questions in a 60-minute
period:
"What is the color inside my brain? What's behind a rainbow? What's inside
of a rock? A tree? Bones? A spider? Does the sky have an end to it? If it
doesn't, how come you can see it?" [Great question!] "Why are my toes in
front of my feet?"
Soon after I saw that, I was glancing through Stephen Hawking's _A Brief
History of Time_. On page 1, here is what he writes: "What do we know
about the universe, and how do we know it? Where did the universe come
from, and where is it going? Did the universe have a beginning, and if so,
what happened before then? What is the nature of time? Will it ever come
to an end?"
What strikes me is that there is very little difference between these sets
of questions. Each asks simple, fundamental things. But in the business
setting, it seems to be hard to ask such fundamental questions. Why is
this so? Perhaps people's theories and assumptions form a sort of
territory that fundamental questions challenge. I'd be interested in
people's thoughts.
-- Marilyn Darling mdarling@warren.med.harvard.edu