Problem solving through questions

Over the past few weeks, I've been part of sales and leadership meetings and had many opportunities for one-on-one discussions with managers and sellers. A common theme has emerged regardless of market size, company size or seller proficiency:

"It's tough out there, and we're trying to figure out what to do about it."

Naturally, when you or your team is struggling, you want answers. So intuitively, we go in search of answers to solve our problems. Instead, we'd like to encourage you to ask the right questions, and the answers to your challenges will reveal themselves.

We're big fans of brainstorming. The word brainstorming was introduced initially by Alex F. Osborn in 1953 through his book Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking. Osborn said: (I love this quote.) "It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one."

In a recent article from Harvard Business Review, they identify five different types of questions to ask yourself or your team to lead you on the path to discovery for the solution to your current struggles:

Investigative: What’s known?

What happened? What is or isn't working? What are the causes?

Speculative: What if?

What else might be going on? Can we do this differently? What haven't we thought of?

Productive: Now what?

Do we know enough to proceed? What's the next step?

Interpretive: So, what…?

What did we learn today? What are we trying to achieve in the big picture?

Subjective: What's unsaid?

How do you really feel about this? Have we consulted the right people?

In my experience, these questions are better asked in a group so that you can have input from multiple people. We all see the world differently, and those differences can lead to new ideas, discoveries and possibilities we could never have come up with on our own. The key is to have the appropriate "mix" of those questions as you facilitate the meeting. Because of my journalism background, I used to get hung up on the investigative and how we got to the current situation. Over time, I discovered that the investigative questions should be briefer to identify the current situation. Still, true magic begins when we start speculation, interpretation, and productive questions about shaping the future.

With the groups I've worked with recently, I've had the chance to work with them through this questioning process. It's been gratifying to see the participation from everyone on the team. As a bonus, it turns into a team-building exercise.

Tough times never last. Tough people do. By approaching problems this way, you might be surprised at the answers you'll find. Remember:

If things aren't going the way we want, we have to go about it differently. This is what we teach our sellers to do with clients.

Participation leads to buy-in and productivity.

Participation provides insight otherwise not seen.

Happy Friday!

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@rab.com. You can all so connect with him on X and LinkedIn.