Every question is a spark for something. The question is…what are you sparking?
In the 1870s Stephane Tarnier was a doctor working at a hospital in Paris, caring for mothers and newborn infants who faced a high death rate if their birthweight was low. Upon visiting a nearby zoo and watching how baby chicks were kept warm in incubators, Tarnier wondered…what if we did the same for human babies? Soon the hospital incubator was born, saving countless lives1.
Questions can spark all sorts of innovations and improvements:
- the right question can motivate a team member who has been frustrated
- the right prompt can help an engineer find a solution they had not considered
- a thoughtful reflection (why is no one listening to me?) can help us realize what we need to change
- the right inquiry (what if we stopped doing check-in calls? what if we did them twice as often?) can help us optimize our schedule
- a clear question can reinforce accountability – (bottom line…when will it be complete?)
What are you sparking with your questions?
To learn more about how The Questions Company can help you and your team ask more stimulating questions, please schedule a consultation.
- Read more about this story in Steven Johnson’s fabulous book Where Good Ideas Come From, chapter 1, pages 25-27. ↩︎
