I Have a Question…

“Dad – what’s that?”

My daughter, 4 or 5, was in her car seat as we were running errands. She grew impatient with my delay in answering her question.

“That!” she said as she pointed out her window at the curb.

“It’s called a curb,” I explained.

“What’s it made of?”

“Cement.”

“What’s cement?”

I was about to enter the zone of never-ending questions from a toddler. I find myself curious about what goes through toddlers' minds as they are taking everything in.

Her preferred choice of input was by asking her mom and me an endless string of questions.

Questions are not just preferred by kids. For adults, questions are natural every-day occurrences to give and receive information. We create our go-to list of questions and don’t even think about it anymore. Asking questions becomes second nature.

Judge a man by his questions, rather than by his answers.

Voltaire

It is time to innovate the questions we ask.

Socrates was the master of asking questions. Socrates believed that “the disciplined practice of thoughtful questioning enables the scholar/student to examine ideas and be able to determine the validity of those ideas,”.

The same applies to today’s society. Rather than challenging ideas, we should use questions to examine ideas and determine if they are valid.

Excellent questioners (innovators) spend the time necessary to craft brilliant questions to test ideas.

? How much time do you spend designing exceptional questions that will give you unique insights?

For more on why questions are important, download the free PDF resource, “Why Questions Matter”, from my book, Beyond The Obvious.

A post that is less than 300 words is a “micropost.” I am trying out these shorter posts so I can share more often. Please share your thoughts. Post in the comments.