Asking Better Questions
“Does this knowledge help you understand that the world is larger or smaller than you had orginally thought?”
“Start from the presumption we know nothing”
I have tried to write this post about four times in the last ten days. Every attempt has ended in dismal failure. Too many words… not enough words… Too much exposition….Poor exposition. The right words but in the wrong order. And so on. Helpfully, I was reminded of Matt Webb’s personal rules for blogging; many of which are designed to remove the numerous barriers you encounter when writing….. Rule 4: Give up on attempting to be right… Rule 6: Give up on saying anything new…. Rule 11: If it’s taking too long, stop.
I did consider stopping.
But, the topic which follows is one I’ve been discussing with colleagues and friends over the last couple of weeks. It always seems to stimulate conversation and interest, so maybe it’s worth one more crack of the whip. I’ve found it easier to set out my argument verbally than I have in writing. Largely because when I speak about the observations driving the thought, I’ve delivered it in a loose, shopping list-style, not as an essay. My train of thought goes something like this:
In Agencyland we love talking about ‘problems’. Brand problems, client problems, business problems etc. etc. and we love attempting to solve those problems for our clients.
Problems are motivating because they allow us to be solutions orientated. We can align the challenges a client faces with the products and services we sell.
For strategists in particular, problems are especially motivating. These are people who are either encouraged or actively want to cultivate an image as ‘the smartest people in the room’. Having answers to big, knotty problems is a means of achieving that aim.
But, fixating on problems is in itself problematic.
Some problems are too big or complex for people to truly understand, let alone solve. These problems promote inertia.
Some problems are openly accepted as part of the fabric of a situation, written off as ‘the way things are done round here’. People would rather work round these, rather than actively attempt to solve them.
And some problems aren’t capable of being solved with the available tools. These problems encourage people to ‘see everything as a nail’, per Maslow’s Hammer.
In our industry, there is a danger that very little competitive advantage exists in rational, functional terms. Every agency or parent company has a set of tools and services. Most do broadly the same thing as the tool kit of the competition. Orienting around problems encourages this homogeneity: with finite resource, agencies build tool kits which can service the broadest spread of challenges from the broadest spread of potential clients.
We also know that individual people have finite resources too: this encourages a desire to use rules of thumb as much as we can. These heuristics help get us to answers quickly: Tool X does Y. All brands in all categories need to balance brand and activation spend at 60:40. etc. etc. etc.
Nuance is lost. In a very complex world, where lots of things are ambiguous and volatile, a lack of nuance is dangerous. This danger manifests itself in two ways: less “creativity” (e.g. a reluctance to try new, innovative methods) and less critical thinking; accepting the status quo, not challenging it. Both factors contribute to work which is good, but not great. Perfectly acceptable… but probably average, undifferentiated and unlikely to represent meaningful progress.
If you’re trying to teach a child to think creatively and critically, you focus on questions. You encourage them to ask questions about everything. You encourage them to ask logical questions and lateral questions. This is wonderfully illustrated by the walls of the recently opened Young V&A in Bethnal Green. The artefacts on display sit neatly alongside a wide range of prompts, provocations and questions (see gallery below) designed to encourage curiousity in visitors.
As people get older, they develop a self consciousness which is absent in children. They become fearful of saying the wrong thing. Of looking stupid. They search for certainty and find security in rules and routine.
There is an analogue in corporations and companies too: established businesses develop and refine their systems and processes, guiding the actions of their employees. Adherence to these systems and process both keeps people safe but also ensures the production of a consistent product. However, stringent processes contain bias. And if anything they minimise the risk of bad work, rather than maximise the opportunity for brilliant work.
Therefore, are the organisations which are most able to think and act “creatively” the ones which establish and foster a culture which is defined by it’s willingness to ask questions? The questions it asks itself. The questions it asks of it’s suppliers and partners. The questions it asks of it’s customers.
A culture that will not shy away from ‘difficult questions’.
A culture that will not assume it knows the answer to everything already. It’s people will be open to saying ‘I don’t know’, promoting a desire go hunting for information beyond the four walls of it’s own ‘domain’.
It will use questions and the subsequent answers as a means of propelling itself forward to progress, via a programme of experiments where the result is not certain.
The basis of some of the most important strategic frameworks are orientated around questions - see Roger Martin and Stephen King. We can’t forgot these but we can also augment these foundational questions further. You might try:
Developing physical tool kits of questions which you can use to prompt and guide you, as Matt and John did, following in the footsteps of Brian Eno (see gallery below). Categorise your questions into areas aligned to your process: questions of discovery, diagnosis, design….
Spend time noting down the questions you encounter in your life which you find particularly profound, interesting or illuminating. Personally, asking what people are reading has lead me to some brilliant, unusual places. And certainly to ideas I never would have encountered othewise.
Developing a list of ‘emergency questions’, per comedian Richard Herring. Catch people off guard. Force people and yourself to think laterally.
Speak to colleagues in different specialisms within your organisation and asking them what questions they ask of their work. Can you transpose the questions of a UX specialist into communications planning, for example?
Speak to people in professions outside of your own. How does a doctor ask questions? An electrician? A lawyer? What do they ask? Ask these people to think about your process. What looks bat-shit-mental to them? How would they approach the work? Where would they look for information? How can you harness a sense of intelligent naivety?
Use Google, use Reddit, use Survey Monkey, use ChatGPT. Use Zoom. Find ways to scale up the questions you ask, getting out of your little corner of the world.
Build an ‘anti-library’ like Umberto Eco: focus on the value in the books you’ve not read yet, rather than the knowledge contained in those you have.
How else might you arrive at better questions to ask yourself?
If you’re trying to think and act more creatively and more critically, focus on asking better, more interesting questions of the briefs you’re tasked with answering. What we teach children can and should be applied to our own professional lives, too. A focus on problems and solutions first, promotes consistent, ‘safe’ answers, but won’t move the work on. Spending time on asking and answering better questions will help refine the understanding of a problem and will create the conditions for new, interesting and challenging solutions.
“Look, if you are driving for excellence, let me suggest you tell your left brain to take a break now and then. And give your right brain permission to let all hell break loose. I am not kidding. … You have to allow disorder and … foster a relationship with anxiety. With unpredictability. … The goal is not to march forward in lock-step harmony. … Excellence is not a formula, excellence is the grand experiment. It’s ain’t mathematics. It’s Jazz”
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