Using Questions to Blow the Lid Off What's Possible

Our View

In the whirlwind of daily leadership challenges, having a variety of tools at the ready can help improve decisions, raise the level of professional conversations and bring out creativity.

One such tool is the use of questioning to reframe situations. Questioning can open up our thinking, give it direction and keep us focused, as individuals and as part of a group. Questioning encourages us to check assumptions while creating space for new ideas.

In his book A More Beautiful Question, author Warren Burger proposes three basic questions as a framework to guide our thinking and interactions: Why? What if? How?

Harnessing Power

The premise behind questioning is to harness the power of inquiry, tapping into breakthroughs and ideas that might not have emerged with a less exploratory approach. An intentional focus on questioning pulls us out of mundane conversation, taking us past assumptions and autopilot discussions. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Hackett Fischer called questions “the engines of intellect — cerebral machines that convert curiosity into controlled inquiry.”

Wondering where to start? Any time you face a puzzling situation or believe some aspect of your organization can be improved, start by asking why. Why are things the way they are?

Each time you ask why, jot down the responses. Then move to the what if. What might be possible if we looked at the issue from a different perspective?

The next line of inquiry centers on the how. How might we entertain the new ideas and possibilities generated in the what if phase of inquiry?

Raising Intellectual Sails

As school system leaders, we’ve both had the opportunity in our respective districts to use the why/what if/how questioning strategy. In one district, we applied it to the high school bell schedule. We started by asking why we use a daily schedule centered on six 55-minute periods each day. Why did we think this is the best model for students and staff? Did we have evidence to show its effectiveness?

Once we fully explored the why, we moved to the next phase — what if. What if there are school-day schedules that better meet the needs of students and staff?

After previous attempts to redesign the high school schedule did not deliver a strong outcome, the focus on why/what if/how provided a more insightful framework to explore various options for a daily bell schedule. When the districtwide teams fully fleshed out a long list of what if’s, the teams could move to the how, centering on the steps stakeholders needed to take to proceed with changing the bell schedule.

Catching Trade Winds

In the second scenario, we used the why/what if/how questioning approach to envision salary schedules differently. We started with the history of our step-and-column schedule to understand traditional salary structures. Then we asked key stakeholders, including teachers, administrators and school board members, “What might it look like if we were to compensate teachers differently?”

That process morphed into a discussion about the value of continuous learning and growth. How might we allow teachers to move on the salary schedule based on positive evaluations or professional development aligned to the district’s strategic plan?

By prompting with our question, we were able to open up thinking and creativity to envision our compensation plan in a very different way. What resulted, after an intensive period of inquiry that focused on the why/what if/how, was an innovative new compensation schedule for teachers, based on performance evaluation through portfolio completion and goal setting around student achievement.

Loosening Sails

The key to cognitive awareness is orienting your team to a new way of thinking, knowing and approaching situations. To set a new course and generate openness to improvement, the critical elements are patience and positive intentionality. Put the three questions to work and harness the power they generate.

As the organization’s leader, you must set the example. You can use this method in big and small situations to build comfort, deepen inquiry and arrive at more thoughtful solutions.