Executive Committee and Board meetings have an advocacy to inquiry ratio of about 90% to 10%. That means, in our experience, that 9 interventions out of 10 are about explaining one’s opinions, for only 1 being an inquiry about others’ opinions.
This results in misalignments, misunderstandings, poor cohesiveness, and occasional unsatisfactory decisions and personal prejudice. Business executives, when in meetings, have long lost their ability to question, to probe, to investigate. One man can change that. If he were still around, we would recommend you to hire him, at Board level or in your Executive Committee.
Socrates is not around anymore, though you can still hire his ideas. Socrates was a man of remarkable integrity. The overall purpose of his inquiring style was to challenge accuracy and completeness of thinking in such a way that his ‘pupils’ and ‘clients’ were moved to positive action towards their ultimate goal. Inviting Socrates (we mean, his method) to your Board meetings would probably start as an annoying experience, then grow into greater effectiveness, positive contagion, and ultimately enjoyment, as we have observed over and over again. This is how Socrates would inquire if he were attending your next executive meeting:
- Clarification questions: open or closed questions to remove any potential misunderstanding
(‘pre-inquiring’)- “What [or who] are you talking about?”
- “Is [this] in the scope of our discussion?”
- “Are you referring to A or B?”
- Assumptions-probing: open questions to explore underlying hypotheses and assumptions; to test argumentation logic (‘inquiring back’)
- “What makes you say that?”
- “How can you verify that assumption?”
- “Why do you think so?”
- Evidence-probing: open questions to surface evidence, proofs, facts, for confirmation and for reality-check (‘inquiring down’)
- “What would be an example?”
- “What do you mean exactly?”
- “What facts would illustrate this?”
- Alternatives-probing: open questions to broaden the discussion; to explore alternative viewpoints and perspectives (‘inquiring lateral’)
- “What would be an alternative?”
- “What could be another explanation for …?”
- “Would everyone think so?”
- Implications-probing: open questions to explore consequences and repercussions; to push for logical cause and effects (‘inquiring forward’)
- “What generalizations can you make?”
- “What are the consequences of …?”
- “What are you implying?”
- Meta-questions: questions about the question; to elevate, take distance, and reflect about the inquiring and learning (‘meta-inquiring’)
- “What was the point of this question?”
- “Why do you think I asked this question?”
- “What is the key question?”
Become a better inquirer, and you’ll become a better convincer. You’ll help people themselves realize what would be the best course of action, and commit to it. When reintroducing these 6 lines of inquiry in business steering forums, we have noticed more productive conversations, improved decision-making, greater empathy and understanding, and more animated, deep, and joyful meetings.
What are you waiting for? Invite Socrates to your next Executive Committee!
If you want to know more about this topic, develop your inquiring skills during our boost seminars, coaching programs and development trainings, contact us!