The Power Of Questions

Tom Atlee
Co-Intelligence Institute November 2003

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and
try to love the questions themselves...
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day into the answer."
-- Rainer Maria Rilke

ACTIVE INQUIRY

Management experts like Peter Senge and others suggest that dialogue involves balancing inquiry and advocacy. In the inquiry dimension of dialogue, we seek to understand what is true for others or real for the group. In the advocacy dimension, we offer our own perspective as a contribution to the "group soup." (Note that this kind of advocacy is a far cry from asserting our truth as The Truth.)

Some therapists and social change activists take inquiry further. They have noticed that active inquiry -- asking good questions and really listening well, or convening people to explore together powerful questions that have heart and meaning to them all -- can have a transformative effect. The transformative impact comes not from leaders knowing what to tell people, but from listeners or convenors knowing what to ask and creating an open-ended, vibrant space to explore in.

Active inquiry involves shared exploration towards shared understanding, and so exemplifies co-intelligent dialogue. It requires the heartfelt participation of all parties. It is people truly listening to people truly speaking.

In active inquiry, questions play a different role than they usually do. We aren't so interested in answers -- and we definitely aren't interested in The Right Answer. The main point is that well-crafted questions elicit new awareness and feelings of empowerment. Any answers that emerge are icing on the cake. Often a powerful question changes the questioner, as well.

Below are some excellent resources on powerful and generative questions:

 

SAMPLE QUESTIONS ABOUT SOCIAL ISSUES AND CRISES

Questions for reflection about the 911 attacks - written the day after the attacks happened

'Listening to our neighbors" Programs - also about 911

Some of the Big Questions about Y2K and Life - some of which may be applicable to potential new crises

See also

Moving beyond answers to live the questions