Powerful questions part 1: The platitude buster question

Hi all

I’ve been a little busy lately so haven’t had sufficient time to write many articles. This will likely continue for a while as I’m also planning the next heretical book with Kailash.

But the other day on a whim, I decided to record a short video on the topic of powerful questions. As I do more and more facilitation, strategic planning and team development work, I am constantly learning about the patterns of group conversation. This has helped me develop insights into the sort of questions that have the potential to cut through complexity to achieve breakthroughs in complex situations. I call these questions “powerful” for that reason.

It should be noted that a powerful question is not necessarily the question itself, but sometimes the the way a question is asked. To that end, in this first video, I take you through the best way I know to cut through organisational platitudes. Platitudes are phrases that often sound impressive and authoritative, ultimately hide the fact that there is not a lot of substance underneath them. While its easy to cite a blatant example like “best practice organisational excellence,” most of the time platitudes are used unconsciously and in much more subtle and dangerous ways. In fact often people ask questions or conduct workshops in such a way that actually encourage platitude answers.

So how do I bust or disarm a platitude? Watch this video to find out!

Now I plan to do a few of these videos, with each building on the last with a new powerful question. Also, I will utilise Compendium and Dialogue Mapping techniques, so you also get a better idea of the sort of non SharePoint work that myself and my colleagues get to perform. So please let me know what you think of the clip. (oh – before I forget, I strongly suggest you watch the video in full screen)

Thanks for reading

Paul Culmsee

www.hereticsguidebooks.com