Q-Burst

At the recent ICF Converge, we were treated to a keynote speech by Hal Gregersen (executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center, and co-author of “The Innovator’s DNA”, with Clayton Christensen and Jeff Dyer). Hal Gregersen challenges organizations and individuals to question the way we think and act to make our world a better, more creative place.
As part of the speech he had us do his “question Burst” exercise in pairs (one person spent one minute laying out a particularly challenging issue facing them, then the other spent 4 minutes brainstorming questions (step 4 below). The first person just listened, while writing down the questions (important!).
In five minutes, it was surprising how much insight was gained from questions. As coaches we know this, but this particular exercise brought that home in a very impactful way.
I can imagine using this in a team setting to open up thinking about a particularly contentious issue.
Instructions for classic “question Burst” exercise below:
“QuestionBurst”: rapidly dump all the questions out of your head. Once the 4 minutes is complete, identify the “best” questions and start answering them. Write all your questions down in a “Question Journal” so you can start tracking progress around your questioning capacity over time, and be sure to share your own journey here.
Directions:
1. Choose an opportunity, challenge, or wicked hard problem.
2. Take an emotion temperature check. Do you feel positive, neutral, or negative about the challenge? In 10 seconds or less, write down your response.
3. Articulate your problem. Spend no more than two minutes articulating in what way you are stuck to a partner or small group.
4. Brainstorm questions. Spend four minutes brainstorming questions. Only Questions! No answers! No explanations about why you’re asking the question!
5. Repeat emotion check. Are you more positive than you were four minutes ago? Write down your response. If you are not feeling a bit more positive, try Step 4 again right now or at another time.
6. Review and revise your questions. Sort through the questions and look for the ones suggesting new pathways to better answers. Any promising angles? Select a couple of questions or perhaps a few that you care deeply enough about that you want to do something about them.
7. Commit to pursuing that angle as a truth-seeker during the next two weeks.
Example: Suppose you’re having trouble gaining customer awareness for a new product. Spend 4 minutes asking just questions around this challenge (for example, “Why aren’t customers noticing this product? If money was no object, what could we do to change this?”)

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