The Question Nobody is Asking

Think about the last time something wasn't working: on your team, in your organization, or in your own life.

What was the first thing you did?

If you're honest, the answer is probably: you looked for a solution. A new approach, a different strategy, something to change. You moved from problem to fix without spending much time in between.

That gap between identifying a problem and responding to it is where most improvement efforts fall apart. Not because the solutions are bad. Because the diagnosis was skipped.

Organizational psychologist Adam Grant argues in Think Again that most people favor conviction over curiosity. We decide what the problem is and then look for evidence that confirms it. The smarter we are, Grant suggests, the more confidently wrong we can be, because intelligence gives us better tools for defending a position, not necessarily for questioning it. The antidote, Grant argues, is a scientist's mindset: not deciding, then defending, but asking and then looking honestly at what you find.

Four questions worth asking before any response:

●  Where are we right now, honestly, not aspirationally?

●  What is underneath this? What condition, gap, or unmet need keeps producing this outcome?

●  What is the right response, not the most obvious one, but the one that fits what we found?

●  Is it working? With current information, right now, is this producing what we hoped?

Reflective Questions

●  Think of a recurring problem in your work or life. Have you ever asked what's underneath it, or have you been managing the surface?

●  When did you last change your mind about what was causing a problem? What made you look again?

●  If someone asked you right now where things honestly stand, not where you would like them to be, what would the honest answer be?

Listen to Episode 1 of Move Toward: Unlocked for the story of a student whose behavior looked like one problem and turned out to be something else entirely.

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