

The Dangerous Art of the Right Question - thekguy
http://blog.trailmeme.com/2010/07/the-dangerous-art-of-the-right-question/

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frossie
Slightly off-tangent, but:

 _What is the top reason people leave jobs? (Answer: they dislike their
immediate manager)_

I know this, everybody knows this, and still it amazes me how few places have
bottom up (or so called 360) assessments of their managers.

~~~
imp
Yeah, I once asked about that kind of review at a company that didn't have it,
and everyone automatically assumed that I hated my manager and wanted to get
her in trouble. In fact, the opposite was true. For some reason people think
that the only purpose of upward feedback is to rat on your boss.

~~~
frossie
Sad isn't it. And good managers want that feedback, but if there is no
workplace structure for it, it's hard to obtain properly because HR isn't
handling the anonymity, training on how to give the right sort of feedback and
so on.

Hmmm. Maybe I should set up a surveymonkey template or something for people
who are interested in doing it themselves.

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shalmanese
FWIW, this is the same guy who wrote the gervais principle series of posts.
[http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-
principle-o...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-
the-office-according-to-the-office/)

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tome
These "right questions" sound an awful lot like half-answers to me.

~~~
barryaustin
"The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding
the answer." - Thomas J. Watson

"A problem well-defined is half solved." - John Dewey

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balding_n_tired
The corresponding questions do not really correspond, and their possible
usefulness is questionable. The supposed correspondence on the Middle East is
notably lame.

~~~
dkarl
_The supposed correspondence on the Middle East is notably lame._

I think the inability to come up with a great question about the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict corresponds pretty well with the fact that there are no
known good solutions to it (except the "if only they would..." kind of
solutions.)

~~~
vgr
The 'different comm styles' ... I did not cite the reference, but there is a
documentary about how Arab-Israeli conversations tend to break down badly even
when both sides go in with win-win positive intentions. It showed some deep
cultural diffs (specifically, Arabs don't like to be interrupted, while
Israelis thrive on it...it's deeper, but that's the highlight point). Seems
like anyone who could figure out how to resolve that diff could organize
better peace talks.

BTW, if it isn't clear, I am the author of the post.

I've lost my password for HN and can't see a way to recover, so I haven't been
responding to HN comments on my posts. Anyhoo, caved and logged in using my
Google id now...I am the same as lost-password vgr on some older threads. If
someone can tell me how to recover my password, I'd appreciate it. Kinda like
my vgr handle.

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zb
Great article. The distinction between formulaic and versus insightful
questions seems very similar to the difference between top-down and bottom-up
processes.

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Ardit20
I do not think it is useless to ask what makes me happy. You know there are
such things as forests and trees. You start with differentiating big themes,
such as what makes me happy, or what do I want, or what will I be doing in ten
years time, or am I really in love, you focus on one of the big themes and
then you go into the specifics.

Its harder to start from the bottom up when the matter is so pervasive and
complex.

~~~
psycocoffey
I _think_ the article is trying to convey that asking those questions about an
existing business is not helpful. I first read it as 'These are all bad
questions that are never useful,' which is obviously false. But in the
situation where there is an existing in depth knowledge base, they are better
replaced with more topical questions.

I baulked at 'What is our goal?" since that is the first question I ask after
someone requests help. But if I am expected to already be acquainted with the
situation, I wouldn't ask.

~~~
vgr
I use 'what's your goal' as a conversation starter as well, but if it gets
bogged down there, I start to tune out.

I think you and I may differ in what we consider 'useful.' I don't classify
procedural starting points as 'useful' except in a ritualistic sense. So in
that sense I think I stand by my rather extreme-sounding view :)

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varjag
"Patented formulas"? WTF

