Questions With Power?
Len & Libby Traubman sent this to me. It might be illuminating to apply this to our work together? What are some questions with power that we might ask?
Questions with Little Power
Questions are more transforming than the answers.
These traditional questions that the world constantly asks have little power to create an alternative future.
How do we get people to show up and be committed?
How do we get others to be more responsible?
How do we get people to come on board and to do the right thing?
How do we hold those people accountable?
How do we get others to buy in to our vision?
How do we get those people to change?
How much will it cost and where do we get the money?
How do we negotiate for something better?
What new policy or legislation will move our interests forward?
Where is it working? Who has solved this elsewhere and how do we import that knowledge?
How do we find and develop better leaders? Why aren't those people in the room?
If we answer these questions directly, from the context from which they are asked, we are supporting the mindset that an alternative future can be negotiated, mandated, engineered, and controlled into existence. They call us to try harder at what we have been doing.
The hidden agenda in these questions is to maintain dominance and to be right. They urge us to raise standards, measure more closely, and return to basics, purportedly to create accountability. They are not really about returning to basics, they are about returning to what got us here. These questions have no power; they only carry force.
All these questions preserve innocence for the one asking. They imply that the one asking knows, and other people are a problem to be solved. These are each an expression of reliance on the use of force to make a dif¬ference in the world. They occur when we lose faith in our own power and the power of our community.
Questions that are designed to change other people are the wrong ques¬tions. Wrong, not because they don't matter or are based on ill intent, but wrong because they reinforce the problem-solving model. They are questions that are the cause of the very thing we are trying to shift: the fragmented and retributive nature of our communities. The conversations about standards, measures, and the change needed in others destroy relatedness, and it is in this way that they work against belonging and community.
These questions are also a response to the wish to create a predictable future. We want desperately to take uncertainty out of the future. But when we take uncertainty out, it is no longer the future. It is the present projected forward. Nothing new can come from the desire for a predictable tomorrow. The only way to make tomorrow predictable is to make it just like today. In fact, what distinguishes the future is its unpredictability and mystery.
Questions with Great Power
Questions that have the power to make a difference are ones that engage people in an intimate way, confront them with their freedom, and invite them to cocreate a future possibility.
Powerful questions also express the reality that change, like life, is difficult and unpredictable. They open up the conversation—in contrast to questions that are, in a sense, answers in disguise. Answers in disguise narrow and control the dialogue, and thereby the future.
We can generalize what qualities define great questions, and this gives us the capacity not just to remember a list but also to create powerful ques¬tions of our own.
A great question has three qualities:
It is ambiguous. There is no attempt to try to precisely define what is meant by the question. This requires each person to bring their own, personal meaning into the room.
It is personal. All passion, commitment, and connection grow out of what is most personal. We need to create space for the personal.
It evokes anxiety. All that matters makes us anxious. It is our wish to escape from anxiety that steals our aliveness. If there is no edge to the question, there is no power.
Questions themselves are an art form worthy of a lifetime of study. They are what transform the hour. Here are some questions that have the capacity to open the space for a different future:
What is the commitment you hold that brought you into this room:
What is the price you or others pay for being here today?
How valuable do you plan for this effort to be?
What is the crossroads you face at this stage of the game?
What is the story you keep telling about the problems of this community?
What are the gifts you hold that have not been brought fully into the world?
What is your contribution to the very thing you complain about?
What is it about you or your team, group, or neighborhood that no one knows?
These questions have the capacity to move something forward. By answering these kinds of questions, we become more accountable, more committed, more vulnerable; and when we voice our answers to one another, we grow more intimate and connected.
Excerpted from
Block, Peter: COMMUNITY: The Structure of Belonging, Berrett-Koehler, 2008, 240 pp
Questions with Little Power
Questions are more transforming than the answers.
These traditional questions that the world constantly asks have little power to create an alternative future.
How do we get people to show up and be committed?
How do we get others to be more responsible?
How do we get people to come on board and to do the right thing?
How do we hold those people accountable?
How do we get others to buy in to our vision?
How do we get those people to change?
How much will it cost and where do we get the money?
How do we negotiate for something better?
What new policy or legislation will move our interests forward?
Where is it working? Who has solved this elsewhere and how do we import that knowledge?
How do we find and develop better leaders? Why aren't those people in the room?
If we answer these questions directly, from the context from which they are asked, we are supporting the mindset that an alternative future can be negotiated, mandated, engineered, and controlled into existence. They call us to try harder at what we have been doing.
The hidden agenda in these questions is to maintain dominance and to be right. They urge us to raise standards, measure more closely, and return to basics, purportedly to create accountability. They are not really about returning to basics, they are about returning to what got us here. These questions have no power; they only carry force.
All these questions preserve innocence for the one asking. They imply that the one asking knows, and other people are a problem to be solved. These are each an expression of reliance on the use of force to make a dif¬ference in the world. They occur when we lose faith in our own power and the power of our community.
Questions that are designed to change other people are the wrong ques¬tions. Wrong, not because they don't matter or are based on ill intent, but wrong because they reinforce the problem-solving model. They are questions that are the cause of the very thing we are trying to shift: the fragmented and retributive nature of our communities. The conversations about standards, measures, and the change needed in others destroy relatedness, and it is in this way that they work against belonging and community.
These questions are also a response to the wish to create a predictable future. We want desperately to take uncertainty out of the future. But when we take uncertainty out, it is no longer the future. It is the present projected forward. Nothing new can come from the desire for a predictable tomorrow. The only way to make tomorrow predictable is to make it just like today. In fact, what distinguishes the future is its unpredictability and mystery.
Questions with Great Power
Questions that have the power to make a difference are ones that engage people in an intimate way, confront them with their freedom, and invite them to cocreate a future possibility.
Powerful questions also express the reality that change, like life, is difficult and unpredictable. They open up the conversation—in contrast to questions that are, in a sense, answers in disguise. Answers in disguise narrow and control the dialogue, and thereby the future.
We can generalize what qualities define great questions, and this gives us the capacity not just to remember a list but also to create powerful ques¬tions of our own.
A great question has three qualities:
It is ambiguous. There is no attempt to try to precisely define what is meant by the question. This requires each person to bring their own, personal meaning into the room.
It is personal. All passion, commitment, and connection grow out of what is most personal. We need to create space for the personal.
It evokes anxiety. All that matters makes us anxious. It is our wish to escape from anxiety that steals our aliveness. If there is no edge to the question, there is no power.
Questions themselves are an art form worthy of a lifetime of study. They are what transform the hour. Here are some questions that have the capacity to open the space for a different future:
What is the commitment you hold that brought you into this room:
What is the price you or others pay for being here today?
How valuable do you plan for this effort to be?
What is the crossroads you face at this stage of the game?
What is the story you keep telling about the problems of this community?
What are the gifts you hold that have not been brought fully into the world?
What is your contribution to the very thing you complain about?
What is it about you or your team, group, or neighborhood that no one knows?
These questions have the capacity to move something forward. By answering these kinds of questions, we become more accountable, more committed, more vulnerable; and when we voice our answers to one another, we grow more intimate and connected.
Excerpted from
Block, Peter: COMMUNITY: The Structure of Belonging, Berrett-Koehler, 2008, 240 pp
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ann Cole on -
Dear Bill,
How are you? I received your e-mail about creating computer games for peace. Great! I loved this piece and printed it to take to my meeting at Talmud Torah - the religious school at the synagogue- where we need to shift the questions.
Best to you and your family,
Ann
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Permalink Reply by Bill Scheurer on -
Ann, thanks for the note. I've gone back into the business world -- albeit with a social purpose -- and have started a new internet company to empower people for social good. Look for our initial product -- KarmaKorn, the game where goodness wins! -- launching on Facebook and elsewhere sometime this fall. Shalom! Bill
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