Ask dumb questions, get dumb answers
Credit to Author: REY ELBO| Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 16:41:26 +0000
MANY of us fall into the ignorance trap. In our desire not to be tagged as incompetent, we give answers that intend to solve a perceived problem. Is it normal? Is it normal when we give answers based on experience, education and, sometimes, mistakes of other people or organizations?
It may be normal, but is it rational? Albert Einstein said he “never made his discoveries out of rational thinking.” That’s to say, we’ve to go beyond what’s normal and rational to come up with the best answers to our problems.
The trouble is we are often drowned with so many information around us. We have all the information in our fingertips but we don’t have the wisdom to apply what’s best under the circumstances. Take “knowledge management” or KM for instance. Any organization could use KM as a system in creating, sharing, using and managing its own unique information that accumulated over the years of its existence. KM could make the irrelevance of the best and the brightest workers who can always leave for greener pasture elsewhere.
But why can’t many organizations remain self-reliant with their own expertise and unique knowledge that they are forced to hire external management consultants? Isn’t it that the best way is to simply look at the firm’s database to discover the best available solutions? Aren’t data the new oil of digital technology? All one has to do is to use KM and find out. The trouble is that they’re not using their KM to the fullest to ensure their competitive advantage.
Sure, there are organizations that rely much on their data. The question is: How consistent are they? And if they have the data or standard answers to any given problem, how well they have become successful? What other problems could be solved? Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres in “Why Not?” (2006) ask: “Shouldn’t there also be a database of questions that people want to have solved?”
In other words, instead of answers, would it be better if an organization has a standard set of questions its managers can use to help arrive at their best answer, rather than being spoon-fed by computers?
“Asking questions is a different skill from answering them. Some people are better at solving problems than at finding good questions to solve,” say management professors Nalebuff and Ayres. Not only “some people,” but many people tend to give both solicited and unsolicited answers without knowing the full context of the issue.
As a Kaizen-Lean preacher, my favorite question I would normally pose to people who care to listen is this: “Is there a better way?” Of course, there’s always a better way of doing things, that is if we all know how to do it. Shigeo Shingo (1909-1990), a major contributor to the development of Toyota Production System went further to prescribe the “easier-better-faster-cheaper” priority approach in solving problems.
Thus, if you believe in Shingo, you’ll start with these questions in the following order: One, how do we make it easy for everyone (customers and employees)? Two, how do we make it better than before? Three, how do we make it faster? And last, how do we make it cheaper or inexpensive for our organization and our customers? That’s assuming we must take into consideration “safety as number one” against all others.
There are many intelligent questions to ask. Aside from the safer-easier-better-faster-cheaper approach, the other important questions you should raise are: how much money would you need to solve problems? Can you afford it? If yes, how long would you recover your investment? Or the much better approach: Is there a low-cost, common-sense solution we can think and use?
If the answer is yes, then what could be the implications of those low-cost, common-sense solutions? Do they have a long-lasting effect? If they don’t, for how long?
It’s not easy to even think of those questions if the organization does not have a system and structure that make it conducive for managers and their workers to ask intelligent questions. For one, many managers are not proactive to discover problems for themselves and their respective organizations. And worse, they’re also not good employee motivators.
So how many people managers do you know who ask sensible questions to their employees like the following: How can I help you succeed in your career in this organization? How can I help to make it easy for you to do your job?
Christian minister Jonathan Pearson is right: “Questions are better than answers” and for three major reasons: One, “questions push us to (do) more. Answers make us think we’re done” even people around us think otherwise. Two, “questions power humility, answers can end in pride.” By asking more and more questions, we tend to convince people that we are not yet done.
And three, “questions force camaraderie with others, answers tend to isolate.” That’s true when answers are forced by the boss or someone in authority who doesn’t believe in consensus-building.
Indeed, it’s easy to find, if not create many solutions to a perceived problem. But the most difficult part is to discover if you’re answering the right question. That’s why it’s better to ask dumb questions than to give dumb answers.
Rey Elbo is a business consultant specializing in human resources and total quality management as a fused interest. Send feedback to elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.consulting