Asking the Right Questions

I was leading an event at a small retreat center last week. At the end of the first day, the manager found me and asked, “Is anyone in your group leaving tonight?” The answer to his question was “No,” but I stopped before I responded. Instead, I said, “No one is leaving, but one person isn’t here yet. He will be arriving later.” You see, the manager was going to close and lock the gate on the way out. If I had just answered his question, the gate would have been locked and our last guest might have been stranded on the other side. It’s a simple story, but it illustrates an important leadership principle. Sometimes we don’t get the right answer or the desired result because we ask the wrong question. (And sometimes we get negative outcomes because we don’t ask any questions, but that’s another subject.) The retreat center manager assumed that everyone had arrived, so the only reason the gate would need to remain unlocked would be for someone to leave. An incorrect assumption led to a poor question. And that’s where leaders often make a mistake. Narrow questions lead to narrow, frequently inaccurate answers. Broader, more open questions may help you see things that you’ve missed. The better question at the retreat center would have been, “Is it OK to lock the gate tonight?” In a small group ministry, a narrow question is, “Are we doing a good job training our leaders?” A broader and better question is, “Why do we have a high drop-out rate from our groups?” A narrow question is, “How can we get more people to go on our mission trips?” A broader question is, “What should we do in selecting and planning trips so that they will be life-changing experiences?” A huge – but narrow – question is, “How can we reverse the attendance decline in our denomination?” Better questions are, “What is causing the attendance decline? How can we revitalize congregations?” You can apply this principle to both ends of a question. When you’re on the receiving end, be willing to say, “I don’t think that’s the right question to ask.” And when you’re the questioner, stop before you speak and think to yourself, “Is the question that I’m about to ask the right one?” The pause will lead to better answers and make you a better leader. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>