Why do Questions Matter?
Recently I was having dinner with my two elementary school-aged grandsons in a restaurant, and I was having trouble keeping them engaged in the meal instead of jumping out of their seats to go get more ketchup or begging to play with my phone. So I asked a question that stopped their fidgeting and focused them on conversation: “If you could invent anything, with no restrictions, what would it be?” For the next 15 minutes they were mesmerized, coming up with many creative ideas (I liked the time travel ideas best, but the infinity ice cream machine was good, too.) I have lost a lot of my child-engagement skills since mine were young, and times have certainly changed, but good questions never fail to invite curiosity and energy.
As you know, the coach leader asks more questions than she answers. Indeed, that is almost a definition of coaching-- asking thoughtful questions that promote thinking, bring energy, and invite creativity.
As society and business have become more and more complex, work has become more changed. Most jobs don’t require following rote instructions or processes all day-- we are required to think to solve complex problems. This complexity bumps right up against the way our brains have evolved to conserve energy and leads most of us to make poor decisions based on faulty assumptions. Questions are one way to slow down our thinking and move us from “system 1” to “system 2” thinking.
Thinking Quickly
Many managers reward fast, decisive action. To do this, many of us rely on the easiest, fastest system of thinking. This is automatic and often unconscious. As you know, the brain is the most expensive part of your body in terms of energy consumption. Even though it is 2% of the weight, it consumes 20% of the calories (Raichle & Gusnard, 2002). When food is limited, precious resources must be conserved. So neural pathways evolved to put common tasks on autopilot to conserve energy. We jump to conclusions based on evolutionarily hardwired rules. How often do you make a decision and then not really know why you did it? When pressed for a reason, we come up with a rationale to justify our decision when really we just relied on the tried and true patterns of system 1.
System 1 is efficient and effective when you are driving to work, playing a game, choosing a restaurant, or doing any number of routine tasks. But it fails when the stakes are higher. According to O’Connor and Lages (2019), there are several reasons system 1 fails, including loss aversion, sunk cost bias, confirmation bias, fundamental attribution error and cause and correlation confusion, among others.
Thinking Slowly
System 2 thinking, or slow, reflective thinking, requires a lot more effort and brings a lot stronger outcomes. This thinking even happens in a different part of the brain-- the neocortex (especially the prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex) as opposed to the limbic system and insula and anterior cingulate cortex where most system 1 thinking happens. Slow thinking involves taking in data, carefully and logically considering it, looking for missing information and making a decision without the influence of context. As you might imagine, system 2 thinking is rare in all levels of organizations.
So, how do we move ourselves and our teams to deliberate, creative, and analytical thinking? With the right kind of questioning, the kind that requires silence, reflection, and expends energy. Demand deeper thinking of yourself and others. Often, you can tell when someone is “talking off the top of their head” instead of asking and answering deep questions. We can help each other become more creative problem solvers by learning to ask the right questions with curiosity and patience.
O’Connor, J. & Lages, A. (2019). Coaching the Brain: Practical Applications of Neuroscience to Coaching, 1st Ed.
Raichle, ME & Gusnard, DA. (2002, Aug 6). Appraising the brain's energy budget. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 99(16):10237-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.172399499. Epub 2002 Jul 29. PMID: 12149485; PMCID: PMC124895.
