Barnabas File

Author Joe Lalley got my attention at once in his new book Question to Learn:  How Curiosity Can Transform Your Career, Team, and Organization because he combines two things that I have found transformative:  design thinking and coaching.     The book integrates the design thinking approach of starting with the customer, prototyping, and improving the idea or product into something that serves the customer’s need with the coaching concept of asking “powerful questions” that draw upon the client’s own expertise and experience to chart a new way forward.   Lalley writes, “This is book is for the community of the curious—a community where questions from professionals at all levels are celebrated, not discouraged.”  His illustrates this well with two individuals he has encountered in his life.  One is Steve, the software expert, who comes into a meeting providing the answer to your problem without even knowing what you need. ...

How do you make the most of the gifts, experiences, and passions of those in your organization?     By encouraging questions. Whether you are leading a church, a judicatory, or a not-for-profit organization, asking questions and providing an opportunity for everyone to ask questions, provides a pathway to growth, excellence, and sustainability.   In Leading with Questions, Bob Tiede and Michael J. Marquardt  suggest developing a questioning culture in every organization.   A questioning culture has six hallmarks. When an organization has a questioning culture, the people in it:    Are willing to admit “I don't know.”   Go beyond allowing questions; they encourage questions. Are helped to develop the skills needed to ask questions in a positive way.   Focus on asking empowering questions and avoid disempowering questions.   Emphasize the process of asking questions and searching for answers rather than finding the “right” answers. ...

Powerful questions are essential in any effective coaching relationship.     Now Bob Tiede and Michael J. Marquardt have joined forces in the book Leading with Questions to show how asking powerful questions can transform organizations and teams as well as individuals.    The subtitle—how leaders discover powerful answers by knowing what and how to ask—provides the theme of the book.   As coaching has evolved from a one-to-one relationship to an organizational opportunity, the art of asking the right questions has opened a path to growth, employee empowerment, and sustainability for every setting.  Marquardt has been an advocate of this approach for years; in this third edition, he joins forces with Bob Tiede to share both practical examples and a decade of research on this topic.   Part One of the book explains why questions can be powerful in helping both individuals and organizations become best expressions of themselves. Part Two offers pract...

Bob Tiede has observed, “Leadership is not as much about knowing the right answers but asking the right questions.”     In situations where the leader of an organization is chosen for his or her knowledge, knowledge can quickly become obsolete.     Rapid change and the proliferation of information require the ability to learn and grow.    One way to learn and grow is to ask good questions and obtain new knowledge. This begins with asking good questions of other members of your team.  Not only does this provide needed information but communicates the leader’s confidence in team members to be (or become) the people with the answers. They are on the front lines, so they should be engaged in assessing needs, discovering resources, and providing answers. Asking good questions of those you serve is also important.  The coach of one of my grandchildren’s basketball team pulled the kids aside at the end of a practice and said, “...

Several years ago, I heard Alan Roxburgh make a statement something like this: “The Spirit of God is at work among the people of God.”   He went on to say that, as a result of this relationship, God has already provided within God’s people the ability to fulfill God’s mission. One way to discover what God’s people have to offer in fulfilling that mission comes from developing spiritual and relational vitality in the congregation.  Another way is to ask questions that will challenge members of the church to dig deeper and not settle for their first response. These questions “peel the layers off the onion.”  In coaching, we call this “asking powerful questions.” Powerful questions come in many forms, but the primary characteristic of a powerful question is that it moves a person to a new perspective.  I always know that I have asked a person or a group a powerful question when the response is, “Now that’s a good question.” Powerful quest...

“Instead of knowing the answers, start asking questions.”—Liz Wiseman This quote from a speaker at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit this year reminded me how important questions are in the coaching conversation.   Rather than bringing answers, the coach brings focused, thoughtful, and challenging questions to the conversation with the person being coached.   This allows several things to happen.  First, they remind the client who is in charge. The person being coached is setting the agenda for the conversation.   The coach and client are going to address what the client wants to address. Second, they encourage the person being coached to draw out their hidden or untapped potential. The client can begin to imagine a better future for themselves based on who they want to become. Third, they make it clear that the coach sees that the person being coached as creative and resourceful.   The client can generate new options for themselve...

One of the touchstones of professional life coaching is the ability to ask powerful questions.   One author defines powerful questions as “provocative inquiries that put a halt to evasion and confusion.”   (Kimsey-House, et al, Co-Active Coaching, 3 rd ed .).   One might say that these are questions that challenge the client to move to the next level in clarity, action, and discovery.   Such questions are very important in a process that seeks to help individuals become the best, most productive, and most fulfilled people that they can be. Christian Coaches Network International conducts regular continuing education seminars online on both the ICF core competencies and best practices related to coaching.   In a recent presentation, Janice Lavore-Fletcher of Christian Coaching Institute offered some interesting perspectives on asking powerful questions. One of the ideas I found particularly interesting was the difference between transactional question...