We love quick answers.
We’re problem solvers, right?
Especially experts. That’s why most speakers give a Q&A (question and answer session) at the end of their presentations.
There’s not anything truly wrong with this. Except not everything has a quick answer.
In fact, maybe a quick answer isn’t a quick answer. Maybe it’s just the easy answer.
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I went to college to be an illustrator. During some class project work, my illustration instructor came by my table and looked over my work. I was in the middle of working on a fine draft of my illustration idea.
“Where are your other ideas?” She asked.
I blankly replied, “This is my only one.”
“You never go with the first idea.” She remarked, “You always dig deeper and find more solutions. Even if the first idea turns out to be your best, you might learn something from your other ideas that you bring back to the original.”
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The problem with Q&A is that it implies a simple pattern:
Question 1 –> Answer 1
Question 2 –> Answer 2
Question 3 –> Answer 3
And so on… and so on… etc.
Instead, what if we adopted a pattern of Q&Q:
Question –leads to deeper thought–> Question –leads to deeper thought–> Question –leads to deeper thought–> Question –>
It’s hard for us to accept this because we feel as if every question deserves a very clear, concise, black & white answer. But when we think this way, we try to find that answer quickly… and when we do find it, then it has to be the one and only answer. It closes our minds from other options. It locks us into our first idea and we never dig deeper for more solutions.
This is one of the reasons why change is so hard.
5 Responses to “Ponder This: Q&Q”
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The Casual Fridays blog is about business in blue jeans. It's about doing the REAL hard work of today. Pausing, thinking and asking the questions others won't ask.
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About DUST!N
Creative Consultant - The Frontline Group
DUST!N speaks and writes about:
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Brad Respess
January 13th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Interesting post-questions with more questions… What if we simply answered a question with an answer and a question. Another twist-when asked to do something, shouldn’t we do first and then ask why to learn why we did it? You bring to light that which is so common to us…going for the easy way out. The easy way might be right, but usually we miss the richer rewards of not allowing only that answer.
Wish it were a casual Friday!
DUST!N
January 13th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Ah, reflection is like fine china.
So many of us have it, but we rarely pull it out and use it. We save it for a special occasion that never comes.
You’re right Brad. Asking why we do something after we do it can lead to learning.
Also, the whole answer questions with more questions tactic has been used for thousands of years. There was this Jewish carpenter guy. He did pretty well with it. I heard he was a whale of a speaker to boot!
Michael Wagner
January 13th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
I like Roger von Oech’s book: A Whack on the Side of the Head. In it he examines the various barriers to creative thinking one of which is “the right answer”.
Good idea Dustin! Change the pattern with a little Q&Q instead of Q&A!
I would say that organizatioanl cultures that allow for “both/and thinking” rather than always insisting on a right answer and thus an “either/or mindset” are more robust and healthy…even competitive. But you don’t get that if you always insist on an immediate answer to the question at hand.
Children enter school as question marks and come out as periods. Neil Postman, Educator
Thanks for the post!
Alex Soto
January 16th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
In the retail design business, creative thinking is an ongoing battle with budget. That is why we involve our staff and clients together to put on a board the most creative thinking ideas from the business side as well as design, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. That may lead to something new and different and so on….
Sometimes the best idea come from outsiders who are not locked into a certain thought pattern. We assemble all of these idea to create the formula for the solution. Creative thinking is developing formulas for new possibilities. It’s an ongoing process.
That is why it is a challenge when you are restricted to deadines and budgets.