Questioning as a Work Literacy Skill
Adaptability, creativity and problem-solving often top the lists of “most-desired skills” for knowledge workers. Inherent in those skills, though, is the ability to ask good questions. I would go so far as to say that the ability to ask the right questions in the right circumstances might be one of THE best work literacy skills we could develop.
Yesterday, in my quest for visual literacy tools and resources, I ran across an excellent post on Dave Gray’s blog on the different types of questions knowledge workers need to master. This is actually some very sophisticated stuff, worth your time and energy to explore. Dave’s question types are:
- A prism is a question that divides information into smaller groups. The purpose of a prism is to break down information into categories or subgroups.
- A razor is a question that divides information into two categories, based on relevance. The purpose of a razor is to define a boundary which can be used to sort any incoming information , and determine whether it lies inside our outside the boundary.
- A generator is a question that has a potentially unlimited number of answers. The purpose of a generator is to explore new or unknown territory and to find knowledge that may be hidden and make it explicit.
- A peeler is a single question that, when repeated, drives attention to deeper and deeper levels, like the peeling of an onion. The purpose of a peeler is to penetrate beyond superficial levels in order to get to the heart of the matter.
- A flanker is a question that seeks patterns or ideas that are similar. The purpose of a flanker is to think laterally and find an analogous situation that may help you think about things differently.
- A splicer is a question that combines information, or sets, into groups. The purpose of a splicer is to find larger categories and simplify collections of information.
- A pointer is a question that has a well-defined or broadly agreed-upon answer, or set of answers. The purpose of a pointer is to gather specific information, for example: “What is your name?” Pointers are used extensively to collect information for the purposes of comparison and quantitative analysis.
I think what’s helpful about this framework is that it allows us to cut across all kinds of knowledge work. They aren’t specific to any particular occupation.
Given Dave’s background in visual literacy, he illustrates his post with some good sketches–definitely worth checking out. While you’re there, you may also want to check out some of his other posts, including this 7-minute video on the basics of visual “language” and this one (also a video) on how visual language can be a great tool for helping us deal with information overload.
What do you think? Is the art of asking questions a key work literacy skill? Are we doing enough to develop this skill? If not, what do we need to be doing?
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July 12th, 2008 at 10:18 am
It’s absolutely a key skill.
July 12th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I really like this framework. It does correlate closely to group roles that have been identified in the group communication and organizational management research. What I like about it, though, is that anyone regardless of where they are in the organization or who they are working with can use these questions to clarify their understanding.
I find many people are afraid to ask questions because it will come back to bite them (I gave you the answer, you should have known, why are you asking questions). Often the more successful workers are those that know how to ask questions, and what questions to ask. I have always been successful in the workplace because of this (as a market researcher, an auditor, a bank teller, a teacher, a trainer, a project manager, etc…). This is a great framework to use to teach communication and the “art” of asking questions.
July 12th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Kia ora Michele!
A few metaphors to think of . . .
The question is the heart of interaction. This list-analysis of essentially open questions (except the razor) is useful if you know the list and are familiar with each type of question type.
I expressed the usefulness of the question in learning in a comment on Darren Draper’s post When Students Become Teachers Become Students. The quesion is also the voice of the learner.
Ka kite
July 13th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Absolutely! Questions are the first step in the learning process. And this starts very early in life when tiny tots overwhelm their parents with barrage of questions.
In my organization, we spend a lot of time training budding IDs the art of asking questions. At the same time, we use this technique with senior people to evoke new thoughts and ideas.
However, this is quite a challenge. Culturally, we are not encouraged to ask questions. Often it is mistaken with imperiousness and at other times with ignorance. Therefore, most people shy away from asking questions. However, as instructional designers, we not only need to master this skill but also extend it to our profession of designing effective learning solutions.
Dave’s classification is very interesting. I love the nomenclature, its so intuitive! What will be more interesting is to see how questioning techniques change as we deal with diverse roles/profiles/levels in an organization.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
As Geeta says, not only are the questions important, how the answers are used are important also. There needs to be training in how to analyze the answers (I just blogged about this).
July 16th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Thanks for this great post! I hadn’t realised there were quite so many categories of questions.
In answer to yours, though:
Absolutely. Unequivocally.
When I started in this job, I wanted to spend time with one of our consultants learning her consummate skill in asking the right questions. Sadly she then left the organisation before I had time to do that. I have come a long way myself, but it’s something I want to develop even further. As a consultant, I think the questions I ask are about the most important thing I do.