The Power of the Obvious Question
When faced with an intractable or complex problem, it's easy for leaders to get bogged down in the minutiae when trying to come up with a solution. Another trap is to go binary - it's either this or it's that - too soon in the decision making process. Rather than opening up options and possibilities, we sometimes try to solve complex problems by settling for the least painful of the most obvious options.
It's at times like this, that's it's helpful to have someone in the room who can step back, get up on the balcony and ask some questions that seem obvious in retrospect but maybe weren't asked because everyone else was too close to the situation at hand.
There was a great example of this in a recent Newsweek article by Holly Bailey and Evan Thomas on Vice President Joe Biden. Here's an extended excerpt that paints the picture:
"Joe Biden had a question. During a long Sunday meeting with President Obama and top national-security advisers on Sept. 13, the VP interjected, 'Can I just clarify a factual point? How much will we spend this year on Afghanistan?' Someone provided the figure: $65 billion. 'And how much will we spend on Pakistan?' Another figure was supplied: $2.25 billion. 'Well, by my calculations that's a 30-to-1 ratio in favor of Afghanistan. So I have a question. Al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan, and Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And yet for every dollar we're spending in Pakistan, we're spending $30 in Afghanistan. Does that make strategic sense?' The White House Situation Room fell silent. But the questions had their desired effect: those gathered began putting more thought into Pakistan as the key theater in the region."There are several things I find instructive in this story. First, Biden is making his point based on facts that may have been lost in the discussion. Second, he links those facts to a bigger picture. Third, he uses those facts and that bigger picture to cause his colleagues to pull up and challenge their assumptions.
What obvious questions do you need to ask to help your team challenge their assumptions? Are you even the best person to ask those questions or is that role better played by designating someone on your team to play the role of devil's advocate? What are the pros and cons of either approach?
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Executive coach Scott Eblin’s goal is to help you succeed at the next level of leadership. Throughout the week, he’ll offer his take on the leadership lessons in the news and his advice on your most pressing leadership questions. A former government executive, Scott is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and is the author of The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success.
Ya gotta wonder whether Smokin' Joe was really that clear, or is maybe the reporters cleaned up his usual bumbling, off-color remarks to make it look like he was. In any case, asking obvious questions may be Joe's highest and best calling.
Ron Posted Friday, October 23, 2009 8:45 AMHey, Scott--how about a lesson on the idiocy of bringing back an enemies list, as this White House is doing? Fox News, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on and on.... Is this presidential leadership or good, old fashioned paranoia?
Ron Posted Friday, October 23, 2009 8:51 AMRegardless WHO actually asked the question or HOW it was actually asked, IT WAS A GREAT QUESTION and had an equally great impact apparently. Wouldn't it have been great if that kind of threshold question had been posed back in the '60s re:Vietnam or even eight years ago re:Iraq?
Jack Posted Friday, October 23, 2009 11:35 AMI was taught that a good way to get a group to look at alternatives and their impacts is to have the questions asked by someone who does not claim to know the answers.
Jeanne Posted Friday, October 23, 2009 3:20 PM