Ask a silly question.
How many times have you not asked a question for fear of looking daft?
I do a lot of work in organisations as a consultant and coach. One of the things being an outsider gives you is the ability to ask ’stupid’ questions without people looking to the sky and tutting. Actually even when I was in an organisation I was always pretty good at asking stupid questions.
Anyway what I have frequently found is that it is the stupid question that unblocks things.
A recent example comes from a group I was working with who kept using the phrase “Learning Culture”. I listened for a while and then wondered what they meant. So I asked “What do you mean by learning culture?” Simple question really.
One of the group looked at me and shook his head in horror. However there was total silence. Not one of the group could answer the question even though they were engaged in trying to develop ‘a learning culture’.
As it happened this question unblocked the whole discussion and moved the group on a long way.
I just wonder how often people get into conversations at work, hear phrases or ideas, wonder what they are and don’t ask for fear of looking stupid? I wonder how many projects go T.U. because people are scared to ask or to point out flaws in things at work? I wonder how many bosses don’t get the truth about what is really happening and all because of a lack of emotional resilience?
A bit of emotional resilience would help organisations in lots of ways…
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by fearcourse: I wonder how many people don’t ask THE daft question? http://bit.ly/G199O...