Page 58 - Appreciative Leadership

The Wisdom of Inquiry 31

questions with a question. When presented with a question, he says

something like, “That’s a good question, and I will answer it, but before
I do, I am curious to know what you think?” What he fi nds is that
90 percent of the time when people ask a question, they actually have
ideas waiting to be shared. And when given an opportunity, they easily
answer their own question. He says it even works with his teenagers!
Give it a try.

What is your ask-to-tell ratio? Do you ask questions
PAUSE
at least three times more than you tell people what
to do or give advice? Write down two things you
will do this week to increase your ask-to-tell ratio.

Questions Are Fateful

The questions we ask are fateful. They determine what we learn, and

they help us create more of that which we consider to be good, true,
and real. Appreciative leaders set the agenda for conversation, learn-
ing, and action through the questions they ask. Imagine a leader whose
daily question is, “How did we miss that sale?” Or another who asks,
“How did we reduce costs on that product?” Each question contains a
topic for consideration. One invites thoughts about how to miss a sale,
the other about how to reduce costs. Which would you rather have the
people talking about in your organization?
Let us show you how this works. Suppose that you are very inter-
ested in reducing stress in the workplace. As part of your plan, you
hire a consultant to study the situation by interviewing your team
about incidents and causes of stress. One by one they are interviewed
and invited to tell stories of stress, times when they experienced so
much stress at work that it got in the way of their performance and
perhaps even negatively impacted their health. As they recall their
most stressful situations and describe them, their voice trembles,