Active Questionning

5th November 2015

I am reading a very interesting book at the moment called “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith. Not a western novel as the name might suggest, but more about the things that spark positive and permanent changes. The most recent section I have been reading is about how to trigger change in other people, which is naturally extremely relevant when managing a team.

I have recently written about leadership and getting your team to take responsibility, and this is another tool which I believe could be very useful. Essentially he talks about “magic moves”, of which three, apologising, asking for help and optimism are fairly self explanatory i.e. they are highly likely to produce a positive behaviour in people. However, the fourth is a little different, and is described as asking active questions, but more than this it is getting people to ask themselves active questions. He explains that when your staff does this, they become more engaged, and instead of being able to blame the environment or someone else, it is down to them to take full responsibility for changing things. This is not just a theory, he has done active studies to prove it, and a couple of examples are, instead of the passive questions “How happy were you today?” and “How engaged in your work were you?” They suggested “Did you do your best to be happy?” and “Did you do your best to be fully engaged?” As I said it is therefore down to the individual to make sure they do something about it, by setting their own goals and direction.

So if you are having trouble getting your team to be more engaged in your business, perhaps you should consider getting them to ask themselves active questions. The results would seem to extremely positive.

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