How to ask better questions | Mike Vaughan | TEDxMileHigh

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

How can humanity increase its capacity to make decisions in an increasingly complex world? In this informative talk, thinking rethinker Mike Vaughan shares insights from his practice helping leaders solve big problems with the power of a good question.

Mike has taken a lifelong passion for learning and thinking processes and used it to create industry-leading research around the analysis of how high-value leaders think, how their thinking is different from their colleagues', and how it ultimately makes them more successful.

So, I've been thinking about thinking
for well over 20 years,

and I think I have more questions
than I do answers.

Now, I'd like to share
some of those questions with you today.

On my journey,
I've been doing a lot of research

and in 2009, I ran across this report
that just really caught my attention.

In this report - it's from the company
called the Millennium Project -

and this organization consists

of well over 500 scientists, researchers,
academics, and business people

from over 50 different countries.

This report is called
the State of the Future Report,

and they outlined
the 15 global challenges facing humanity.

So the things you would expect to see:

clean water, population growth,
energy were all on the list.

It was number 9 that caught my attention.

Number 9: the capacity to decide.

In other words,

decision-making made it on a list
of the global challenges facing humanity.

Why is this the case?

Why is decision-making
becoming more challenging,

with all the information, technology,
and tools that we have available to us?

Why is decision making on this list?

Well, about 10 years ago,
we created this model.

It's very simple,

but I think it does a good job

in explaining both the problem
as well as the opportunity.

What we're finding is that most training
teaches people what to think,

that is, it gives them the processes,
the procedures, the methodologies,

and the information they need
to perform a task.

This is very important,
because we all need a solid foundation.

However, what to think
is a lot like fast food:

it's convenient, it's fast,
it's prepackaged,

and oftentimes, it's overly processed

in the form of regurgitated
ideas and opinions

that do very little to contribute
to our deeper understanding of the world.

Mass media understands this,
politicians certainly understand this,

and I believe schools know this.

Take for example news.

They repeat the same message over
and over and over until we believe it.

Politicians craft 4 or 5 bullet points
and repeat those over and over.

Schools: they package content,
chunk it, and sequence it,

and they give us a test
to see if we could remember any of it.

This begs the question then:

why are we surprised when we find people

that are not as creative, innovative,
and passionate as they could be?

This is where the opportunity comes in.
We have to shift our thinking.

That is, in addition
to teaching people what to think,

we also need to educate them
on how to think.

So, for example,
if I teach you what to think,

you can take what you've learned
and apply it to a similar situation.

However, if you learn how to think,

you can take what you've learned
and adapt it to multiple situations.

In other words,

how to think is learning how to learn,

or as we like to say, it's to learn,
unlearn, and relearn quickly.

My mission is to help schools
as well as corporations

find the optimal balance
between what and how,

and I've done this
by focusing really on two areas:

cognitive neuroscience
and computer science.

In cognitive neuroscience,
what I'm looking for is how do we learn,

that is, how do we create
new neural pathways

and looking at the impacts

that bias, communication, education
has on learning and memory.

From a computer science point of view,
looking for new technologies

that not only allow us
to study decision-making

but allow us to create an environment
that we can put people in

so they can learn how to think.

We've done this

by creating highly advanced
computer-based simulations.

Using these simulations,

we can challenged participants
to make decisions and solve problems

that are similar to the ones
that they face in their own organization.

So not only do they learn how to think
about their own organization,

but we can capture
significant amount of data

so we can assess their thinking over time.

This is what we found.

When people have a lot of training,
that is, a lot what-to-think training,

and they're placed in these simulations,

and they're confronting the problems
that they face in the real world,

most participants resorted to guessing,

that is, when we gave them
more data, tools, checklists, choices,

their decision-making did not improve;
if anything, it got worse.

So, realizing that many of the challenges
that people face today

are too big for just one person,

we shifted our focus
to looking at team performance.

So, here is our line of thinking.

We thought if we can improve
team performance,

how people collaborate,
how they solve problems together,

we can then improve their overall thinking
and hopefully, their decision-making.

Let me give you an example.

Let's say we are all part
of the big organization

and a few of us have been tasked

with growing a certain division
of that organization.

So we get together,
and I get together with you,

and I say, "Hey,
what does growth mean to you?"

And you say, "Well,
it's about profitability and revenue."

I go to someone else,
"What does growth mean to you?"

You might say,
"It is about people and engagement."

And another person may say,

"Well, it's actually
about market share and price."

All of these are valid.

We're excited to be part
of something new, a new initiative,

doing something important
for the organization,

so we get out there and make a promise

we're going to grow this division
by x percent over this period in time.

Then we get back together,
roll up our sleeves

and start putting our plans together,
and that's when it hits us.

The realization that we all have

a very different perspective
of what growth means.

When that happens, conflict happens.

We've all felt this.

I could easily switch
the word growth with community.

We all have different
perspectives on community.

Politics. Wow, lots of perspectives there.

Family, relationships.

Actually, I think that there's lenses
that they call Mars and Venus there.

So realizing that when we feel conflict,
because we have different perspectives,

can be demoralizing.

It can drain our energy
and erode our passion.

So, after about five years,

we honestly felt like boiling the ocean,

trying to find skills
that improve team performance.

We tried everything.

We tried teaching people
conflict resolution, coaching, mentoring,

and we gave them
checklists, and processes, and tools.

Bottom-line: none of these created

the sustainable improvement
that we were looking for.

When we were looking
for that improvement,

we decided to step back

and ask a different question:
what do top performers do?

Finally, we found one skill
that was common to all top performers.

They developed ability
to ask good questions.

I know that sounds simple,

but what they asked
and how they asked was very different.

For example, many of them were able
to suspend their judgment just long enough

to understand someone else's perspective,

and in doing so, they were able
to reduce the conflict,

develop a common language,
and create a shared vision.

As the situation evolved,
so did their thinking.

I know we all ask a lot of questions,
and that's a really good thing;

we want people to be asking
lots and lots of questions.

But what we found, however,
is that most questions are safe,

that is, they surface
what is already seen or understood,

they lead to regurgitated
ideas and opinions.

In other words,

most questions that people ask
really surface what is already known.

Top performers, however,
ask questions that go deep.

They ask questions that move us

from automatic and reactionary thinking
to deep thinking,

they ask questions

that inspire creativity, fuel passion,
and lead to profound ideas,

and most importantly, they ask questions
that spur people into action.

In other words, they ask questions
that demystify the unknown,

and in doing so,
open up an ocean of possibilities.

Our brain is an amazing
searchable data base,

linking emotions, memories, events,
and experiences together

to form answers to our endless questions.

The success of a good answer, however,
relies on the words we choose.

Our words have amazing power on our brain.

How we use words in framing our questions

is what differentiates
a good question from a bad question.

Let me give you an example.

When we saw people
put into the simulation,

or confronted with these challenges,

they started to make decisions.

The teams that were struggling would ask,
"What should we do?"

and it was almost as though the options
in front of them were just narrowed down.

They became very short-term focused,

whereas the other teams would ask,
"What could we do?"

and it was like the ocean
of possibilities opened up to them.

The same is true for the types
of questions we ask ourselves.

For example, if I ask,
"Why do I always procrastinate?",

my brain will surely tell me
that's because I'm lazy,

because I have too much to do,
I don't know where to get started.

However, if I slightly reframe that

and say, "How am I going
to get this done?",

my brain will surely find a better answer.

I know if I was sitting out
in where you are right now,

I would say, "So what?"

There's got to be a lot more to this
than just framing questions.

Well, there is.

I believe that, since we've been taught
what to think for so long,

that the very idea of asking a question
that triggers deep thinking

provokes so many different emotions.

It creates uncertainty,
fear, anxiety, stress.

These are all very real
biological reactions to questions

and from the neuroscience perspective,

too much of any of these
can impair our learning,

our ability to connect, to listen
and be present with one another.

So, what we found

is that the individuals
who would embrace these emotions,

that is, understand that these are
just part of the natural process,

and asking good questions
and allowing questions to do their work,

then questions can really start
to make a difference.

So a good question will expose our bias.

A good question will surface our beliefs

and oftentimes, questions will expose

that we may not know something
as well as we think we do.

These are good things to have happened

because when this happens,
learning can take place.

This is when people can come connected.

This is when they can create relatedness,
understand, and believe in one another.

This is when people can work together
to adapt their thinking.

So now, the good news is that I've seen
kids, parents, coaches, business people,

and even politicians break through
these emotional and mental barriers

and learn to become confident
in asking good questions.

There are a lot of challenges
in this world.

We all have them,

whether they are in our business,
in our cities, in our schools,

in our families, in our relationships.

We all have them.

We all have a very different lens

on what these challenges are
and how to address them.

And this is a really good thing
because I believe

that most of these problems
are too big for one person,

and we really need each other.

What if?

What if you learned
how to ask good questions every day?

What if tomorrow,
when you went to meet with somebody,

you seek to understand them,
instead of trying to be understood?

What if before every important meeting
you took time to write down questions

that would move the conversation
from the known to the unknown?

What if executives led by questions,

not by questioning but asking questions
that inspired others

to think about what they could do
not what they should do?

What if churches, synagogues, mosques
asked, "How ought we to live?"

instead of focusing
on what others don't do.

What if parents asked their kids,
"What great question did you ask today?"

instead of asking,
"What did you learn today?"

With questions,
you get what you asked for,

and in era in which computers
are getting better at answering questions,

we need people who are getting better
at asking questions.

Thank you.

(Applause)