Any Questions? 01/06/16 | Tristen Coffee How many questions do you ask a day? Now think of the 5-8-year-olds in your life—How many questions do you think they ask a day? In a recent study by the Harvard Business Journal, it was found that 80% of a child’s dialogue is made up of questioning, whereas, for a business-person, the number drops to about 25%. It seems that somewhere along the way we forgot the importance of a good question. Questions are a powerful tool for any individual, but especially when doing business. They open up doors, push the status quo, encourage creativity, and acknowledge areas needing improvement—all of these attributes are good for business, so why wouldn't you want to ask more questions? We’ve all been there. Far too often we sit in meetings, brainstorming sessions, trainings and client pitches, when someone asks “Any questions?,” and instantly we hear crickets. But why? The Harvard Business Journal proposes it’s a phenomenon caused by changing work culture– we have gone from “get the job done soon” to “it should have been done yesterday”. Yes, all in the name of progress, but I think we have lost something along the way—innovative thinking. The benefits of questions come with a freedom of thinking; they require an individual to take another route of thinking, push on their original thought process, or even defend why their idea/solution is the best. Questions create both an ownership and collaboration of ideas. Taking time to think further than what is on the surface level of an idea or what is present in the moment, will at worst save us the time of re-working ideas for problem areas, and at best help us come up with more innovative conclusions and solutions. So go ahead—get those wheels turning. Any questions?