A question that gets right to the heart!

I’ve just finished reading a book that I had started some weeks ago. Not because I was finding it difficult to complete – it’s just that my work portfolio had suddenly shifted and the book took second place.

But I’ve now closed that last page! And I want to share a simple questioning technique that the book introduces and that can be applied to most decision making instances.

I’ve mentioned before a book called ‘Time to Think’ by Nancy Kline. She takes you through her thoughts and experiences of developing organisations into thinking environments. There are just over 250 pages of her wisdom. But for me, there is just one sentence/question/frame of words that I came across which has helped me more than anything at work and at home.

You know when you need to make a difficult or profound decision. When you probably know the answer but are in denial of it. When your emotion and gut is telling you something but your logic won’t accept it? Well here is a question that just gets to the heart of the matter. It generates moments of silence. It questions the very being of the issue. It challenges what we already know to be true.

“What do we already know that we are going to find out in a year?”

The beauty of the question is that you can apply it to most circumstances. You can amend the words and timescales to suit the circumstances. You can ask it of yourself. You can ask others to ask it of themselves. It avoids extracting logic. It concentrates on something much deeper in your thinking. And here’s how it’s been amended in my recent work.

“What do you know about this job that you’re going to find out in 5 years?”

“What do we know about this organisation that we’re going to find out after the merger?”

“What do you know about yourself that others will learn in a year?”

“What do we know about this government that we’re going to find out in a year?”

“What do you know about this client that you’ll find out by working with them?”

What the question seems to do is unravel a plethora of emotions that we find difficult to explain or give logic to – yet these are the very feelings which help drive our strategies and decisions

Go on try it! Apply the question to something that’s puzzling you. Even better, help someone else to work through something using this framework. I’d be delighted to hear how you got on!