The Secret to Business Success? Ask "Stupid Questions"!

The second secret I want to share with you in our ongoing effort to reveal the management secrets the “experts” would rather you didn't know is almost as simple as the first:

Asking Stupid Questions can save your business!

This, of course, is a really good thing for me, because (and my wife and kids will be happy to confirm this), I'm great at asking stupid questions.

Stupid Questions, for those of you sifting through all the useless questions from your last department (or project status) meeting, are those questions that every healthy toddler can't seem to stop asking in their search for attention, understanding and truth.

“Why?”
“What?”
“When?”
“Where?”
“Who?” and
“How?”

Asking these simple questions is the first critical step in avoiding career ending disasters.

The second step is knowing when to ask them. While a toddler will questions ask any time, any place of anyone, as adults, we should probably use a little discretion...but not too much. When the project is just starting, ask “Stupid Questions”. When things don't “feel”right, ask a Stupid Question. When something doesn't make sense to you, ask a Stupid Question. When your team doesn't seem too sure of their designs, their solutions, or the direction they're heading; ask Stupid Questions. And when you hear that little voice in your head telling you “I'm sure someone has already looked into that”; ASK A STUPID QUESTION!

The third, and maybe the most important step, is to have the courage and the persistence to keep asking Stupid Questions until you get “the truth”. I say “...until you get the truth” because browbeating your people into telling you what you want to hear is usually more harmful than not asking any questions at all. You need to grow a thick skin and train yourself to ignore withering gazes, snide remarks and annoyed employees and bosses). Ignore the sarcasm and force them to come up with a common-sense answer and convince you of its truth.

Much of my career has been spent straightening out projects, businesses, and departments that have gone badly off track. Time after time, I step into toxic organizations and disastrous situations that could have been avoided had anyone involved taken the time to ask those few simple, “stupid” questions.

In my own career, the times I've gotten into the deepest trouble were those times when I knew in my gut that something wasn't quite right, but I went along anyway; thinking “surely someone else has looked at that” or “so-an-so must have seen that”.

Unfortunately, as simple as this concept is to understand, having the courage, confidence and stamina to be the “...one crying in the wilderness”, it can a tough, scary thing when you actually have to do it. But hang in there., the rewards can be fantastic.

And I'll close with a Chinese proverb I think is wonderfully relevant here:

"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever."

Quoted from http://www.quotationspage.com.
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If you need help asking stupid questions, I'd be happy to help. Either leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.