Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

One of the basic beliefs behind this blog is that the same basic psychological issues confront us both as individuals and in our organizational lives. In other words, the same hangups that drag down one person can drag down an organization. We see this all the time in the way, for example, that fear undermines the confidence of both individuals and companies. For a person, we call it a “mindset”; for a company, it’s a “culture”; but the outcome is the same — paralysis.

With that in mind, I’d like to kick off a discussion of one of my favorite hangup-busting tools: the naive question.

What is a naive question?

I’m glad you asked. It’s the sort of brass-tacks question that a person trying to understand the basic basics of something will ask. Since I teach undergraduates, I think of some of the bright students I’ve had come to me in office hours. Here’s a young woman who doesn’t understand why President Polk was so eager to start a war with Mexico in 1846. Now, to a knowledgeable U.S. historian, the answer is straightforward, and it centers on ideas of Manifest Destiny and Polk’s own dedication to a grand Presidential agenda.

But the sophomore doesn’t know that. She wants to understand better. She asks “Why did he do that?” and “Why did he think that?” and “But surely Congress didn’t just play along?” and “What did the generals think?” and “What did the Mexican government want?” and “What did the annexation of Texas have to do with it?” and so on.

All of these questions educate her, but even better they educate me, because now I’ve got to rethink how all of these things interconnect. How did Polk manage to pull of his agenda? Could someone else have done it in his place? Was conflict with Mexico inevitable? And so on. The same questions the sophomore is asking, translated to the world of expert historians, could make an outstanding foundation for a scholarly book.

Fresh eyes.

One of the grand challenges of life — one that’s magnified in the business world — is to see old things through new eyes. We work long and hard to build up our expertise, and it can be hard to let it go; among other things, our pride likes to get in the way.

Even when pride’s not involved, we tend not to notice the things we’ve looked at a hundred times. The new visitor to your office notices the stain on your carpet, but you stopped seeing it a long time ago.

The need for fresh eyes is why we enlist our friends to give feedback on slide decks, new haircuts, or the layout of our living room. Just think of what you say in those situations: “Does this work?” “Does this look good?” “I’m too close to this and can’t even tell anymore.” Naive questions are just the trick when we’re too close to our work and can’t tell anymore.

Examples.

Here are some of my favorite naive questions:

• What did we set out trying to do?
• If we were starting over today, is this how we would *choose* to do it?
• How will we know when this is successful?
• What do our customers want?
• How do we make money?

Many people think they have answers to these questions, just like I think I have a really clear undertanding of President Polk’s agenda. But when they confront the questions honestly — when they try to answer them in simple, powerful terms — they uncover areas of ignorance, lurking pitfalls, and chances for improvement.

Embrace discomfort.

Good naive questions ought to have the potential to embarrass you. No one enjoys the discomfort of embarrassment. Many of us can’t even bear to say “I don’t know” or to admit that decisions made in the past might not have panned out as we had hoped.

Still, it’s FAR better to ask and answer naive questions ahead of time, before you’re blindsided by problems that may be hiding in plain sight. And if you keep it up, you might find that the steady practice of answering naive questions builds up your own maturity and the maturity of your organization.

Do you have suggestions? What are your favorite naive questions?

[Photo by adreson.]