Just a thought - but I'd rather work with people who ask good questions rather than have them assume they know the answers, or worse, have them assume that others have the right answers.
There's an old saying that you should judge a man's wisdom by his questions and not by his answers, and I believe that's true. Too often in most businesses asking questions seems intrusive, as if you are trying to catch someone off guard or perhaps suspect they haven't done their homework. That's too bad, because far too many questions go unasked, and because of that far too many assumptions go unchallenged and far too many half-baked ideas are implemented.
In the current environment we praise people who quickly arrive at an answer rather than working with people to ensure their perspectives and understandings are accurate, relevant and complete. Asking questions about an approach does not have to be antagonistic, and should be valuable for both the asker and the askee, if that's a word. However, many view this as simply slowing down the process. People who ask questions are considered difficult to work with. I think in many cases we have become comfortable with the elephant in the room, and would rather everyone agree to ignore it than to bring it up.
How do you evaluate the people you work with, and work for? Do you seek out people who ask good questions to learn and to uncover new information, or do you prefer people with the "answers" at the ready? If you have a bias towards one approach or the other, are you conscious of your blind spots?
Life is short! I hope I can talk to you in the blog life as wonderful and beautiful! This makes sense of my life be flies! I should have left a footprint in this world!
Posted by: Puma Shoes | August 20, 2010 at 11:53 PM