Asking Questions

There are some days when I ask a million questions and chatter all day. Other days I spend in complete silence. Lately, I have become more aware of this dichotomy, and even feel a little self-conscious of it. Rather than try to radically change my behavior, I have been meditating on the motivations and meanings of one of my core mantras – Ask Questions. I was surprised by what came up.

Ask Questions is a lot more than a simple self-reminder to ask questions when they come up… To me Ask Questions has a myriad of meanings that encourage me to:

– Be an Active Listener.

– Be Bold. Speak up when the room is silent.
– Be Clear.
– Be Damn Certain! Do you really have all the answers?
– Be Ernest & Engaged. The response reflects the attitude with which the question is asked.
– Be Focused. Get to the point! Rambling = Trouble.
– Be Genuine. If you don’t want to know, don’t ask.
– Be Humble. What can you learn today?
– Be Inquisitive. Think inside, outside, and around the box.
– Be Jazzed!
– Be Kind. How is your loved-one/co-worker/friend/neighbor doing?
– Be Led by the conversation, but also be willing to re-focus on the topic at hand.
– Be Meditative. Take the time to digest what has been said.
– Be Neutral.
– Be Open to open-ended questioning.
– Be Precise. Communication is a complicated business – What are you really asking?
– Be Quiet. Let the answer be answered before you ask another question.
– Be Rational & Irrational. Can you break the logic?
– Be Still – it helps focus on the speaker.
– Be Tenacious. You might not get an answer on the first or second or even tenth try.
– Be Up to Date with your facts, figures, and background knowledge.
– Be Voracious!
– Be Willing to explore. The journey of discovery often teaches more than the answer ever will.
– Be X-acting.
– Be Yourself.
– Be Zeus. Some days you don’t need to ask. You just know.

What does Asking Questions mean to you?

The Game of Questions&Answers

At work I an engineer in a sea of scientists. For all that my colleagues and I took the same math and science classes in school, we still think differently. My brain packages up the big and small picture to create "solutions." Their brains ask "Who?" "What?" "Why?" long after I've gone to the beach for an evening swim. Some days we don't speak the same language; but then on other days we harmonize and create Art! Those days of Artistry happen when I remember to play the game of Questions&Answers.

The game of Questions&Answers is based in the Scientific Method. The premise of the Scientific Method is that reality will speak for itself, if the seeker takes the time to objectively Listen. Notice, I did not start with a carefully crafted study question and hypothesis. Life rarely follows the rules of your typical high school chemistry notebook and therefore scientific inquiry cannot start full-throttle! First, there is a period of Listening and Introspection, or as William Whewell put it, "invention, sagacity, [and] genius."

There are a lot of facts and opinions that make up the universe.
Some are relevant.
Some you think are relevant.
Some are relevant, but in a different way.
And some are just distracting.
The key is Listening; Asking the Question - What else?; and then Listening again.

It takes time and patience - more than I think I have some days. To decide dinner plans? It only takes 1-2 iterations, a few meditative breaths. To design a multi-million dollar monitoring program? Let's just say, things become more involved.

Either way, I am dedicated to playing the game of Questions&Answers - At work, at home, in my relationships. It's a game that should be played everyday! It helps keep me from jumping in too soon, with a head full of assumptions, emotions, distractions, worries... I use the game to identify the most relevant questions, clarify my foundational assumptions, develop test-able hypotheses and then (and only then) appropriate testing parameters. That's when I start navigating the chemistry notebook.