The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook & Companion, 2nd Edition

3 The Power of the Question

• Flawless Goes to Parliament | Joe Maalouf
• A Cautionary Tale: Trying on Yesterday’s Methodologies | Jill Janov
• Change Is in the Details | Peter Block
• Talk Is Walk: Language and Courage in Action | Peter Koestenbaum
• So, What’s Working Here? | Elizabeth McGrath

The alternative to basing service on advice is to put more faith in questions. We serve our clients more through the questions we ask than any advice we give. Questions have a life and power of their own; they carry a message independent of how they are answered. The traditional stance of the consultant is to give answers; asking questions is a skill in and of itself. Also, too little attention is given to the impact of the questions we ask. In traditional social science we have separated the researcher from the subject. We act as if we can study something without changing it. This is an illusion, for when we are dealing with anything that is alive, it is always adapting to its environment. So the way we inquire affects what we are interested in.

Some questions carry a message of judgmental scrutiny. For example, have you ever asked a junior in college what they are going to do when they get out of school? Not nice. Another type of unfriendly question is to ask someone with a problem, “What are you going to do about it?” Ten percent of the time this question might be useful, but most of the ...