Evolutionary Questions

At one time or another, we all have had experiences of getting stuck as a team or as an organization - where no matter what you do the performance remains range-bound. It is at this stage that many of us feel the need for out-of-box thinking. This blog is focussed on the power of questions to help us move us forward.

Evolutionary questions refers to a set of question which are universal in appeal and powerful to open our minds to possibilities that did not exist before. What makes this approach profound (vis-a-vis structured methodologies like TOC, TRIZ etc.) is its simplicity. Any team can learn to ask themselves these questions without having to learn whole new behaviors and practices.

And we have precedence of this approach. Socrates, one of the greatest philosophers ever, taught by asking questions... The root of education comes from the word 'ex duco' - meaning to 'lead out' or enable learning by "drawing out" the answers from the students... (vis-a-vis drilling in).

Evolutionary questions have their time and place. They typically come after a problem has been fully defined i.e. everyone has clarity on what is the problem. The typical risk in defining a problem is not of clarity but completeness. For example, US automakers in 1960s focussed on the problem of making highway and drivers more safe, while the Japanese were focussed on making cars more safer.

However, once the problem is clear and complete - we encounter the stage where the team looks for a strategy to solve for the problem. Typically, the tendency at this stage is to look for solutions within the box. And, this is where evolutionary questions come in. It is a leader's job to break the mold and explore evolutionary ideas...

I have found the following set of two questions as very helpful at this stage:
- Question 1.A
As we consider a solution - what aspects of our current situation will most likely remain unchanged even after we implement a solution? In other words, what aspects of our current work is "out of scope" for the solution?

As some of you may realize what I am trying to draw out is a list of assumptions that a team is making without being aware of it. But, the above is a craftier way to solicit hidden assumption. Once the assumptions are laid out, the team should probe on the assumption that hold the most promise for break-through thinking.

- Question 1.B

Which of these assumptions, if dismantled, holds the strongest potential for a break-through improvement?

In facilitation exercises, it is at this point where the team struggles the most as they make unverbalized connection between the assumption and the probability of it being dismantled. It may help to encourage a pair-wise comparision instead of list ranking.


And, I am sure there are more. I will use this blog to continue updating these questions as I find them. The beauty of evolutionary questions is that it is perfectly scalable. You can use it for small everyday problems to highly strategic ones.

Turns out that you don't have to be stuck to ask evolutionary questions. Recently, one of my friends asked this question to a consulting start-up after the organization received a global award for successful implementation at a particluar client:

What was special about the client? Did your company do anything different for this client?

Have you been in situations where a questions has opened up a world of possibility that did not exist before? Chime in.