Saturday, 22 March 2014

The Pursuit of the question


This blog has been quiet for a while – ever since I Summited Kilimanjaro.  I suppose the experience was so profound that I had to sit back and reflect a little.  Unfortunately, unlike Moses of old who went to the mountaintop and brought some tablets, I did not bring any.  Many friends were already queuing for tablets of the Samsung and android types.

I have referred in a previous blog about the one thing.  This is about constantly asking ourselves what the one thing that we need to do at any one time is, that unlocks everything else.  It is about the one action that will have the Domino effect on all the other things that you need done.

Human learning overtime has been driven or influenced by asking questions.  The early philosophers and scientists built the early understanding of the world and the universe by asking endless questions, which when answered continued to build the world of knowledge that we now enjoy.  Young children, as soon as they learn to talk, build their understanding of the world by asking endless questions.  If you want to know the power of questions, hang around a four year old.  Questions are a key part of thinking.  Indeed, questions are evidence of thinking.

It is instructive that a big part of the teachings of Jesus was in response to questions, especially by the experts of the day, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The constant banter between Jesus and these groups demonstrated much of the understanding of the day, and key lessons were built around this banter. It is also instructive that the show stopper in this banter was a question that Jesus asked that neither the Pharisees nor the Sadducees could answer.

I am constantly learning to ask the right questions in order to get the right answers.  The old adage still holds – a stupid question gets a stupid answer.  I recently spend an hour with a business person who confessed that the reason she had not been making progress in her business was that she was not asking the right questions.

So – What questions are you asking?

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