How to Ask Better Questions

The 6 Types of Questions You Must Ask to Succeed – and Why You Need a Diverse Team to Ask Them All

Nov 12, 2024

Founders are people who seek better answers.

But great founders know that to get a better answer, you first have to ask a better question.

Take the social entrepreneur Andreas Heinecke as an example. While working at a radio station, he was asked to help a former employee – who had recently lost his eyesight after a serious car accident – to rejoin the staff.

The initial question Heinecke asked himself was:

“What could a person with such a disability still do at a passable level?”

But as he got to know his colleague better, he realized just how limiting this question was. He thus reframed it to a more positive version:

“In what kind of job setting could a blind man capitalize on his relative strengths?”

This new question sparked the idea for “Dialogue in the Dark” – a social enterprise where sighted people get to experience a day in the life from a blind person’s perspective.

Guided by blind personnel, visitors are led through full-scale mockups of everyday features of a city – cafés, music concerts, playgrounds, boat rides, etc – all in complete darkness.

A Dialogue in the Dark Exhibition in Israel

Today, Dialogue in the Dark exists in 47 countries. More than 9 million visitors have had their eyes opened by the experience. And thousands of blind people have found stable employment as exhibition guides. 1 2

As Heinecke’s story shows, not all questions are created equal.

It’s no understatement to say that the quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our questions. But this begs the most important question of all:

“How can I tell if I’m asking the right questions or not?”

That’s the topic of this essay.

Why Catalytic Questions Are Just the First Step

When we think “great questions”, we tend to think about what Hal Gregersen, author of Questions Are the Answer, calls “catalytic questions”.

These are the questions that act like a catalyst in a chemical process. They challenge old assumptions, open up new possibilities, and make everyone slap their forehead and go: “Why didn’t we think of that before?”

The founding story of Dialogue in the Dark is a perfect example of such a catalytic question.

But did you notice what was missing from the story of how Dialogue in the Dark came to be?

We went from a reframed question – but then fast-forwarded to when the idea had achieved global success.

The story left out the 99.9% of follow-up questions that had to be asked to create this global enterprise. Questions such as:

“Is an exhibition the best idea? What else could we do to help the blind?”
“How can we test the concept?”
“How will we spread awareness of the exhibition?”

These questions were also critical to the project’s success. Yet, we rarely consider them on a shortlist of “great questions”.

While catalytic questions are crucial to spark new thinking, they are only one of many types of questions needed to add something new to this world.

There are actually 6 different stages of work that every project must go through to succeed. And the questions we ask determine which stage we focus on at any given moment.

To become a better questioner, you must learn to ask the right balance of questions – and at the right moment.

The 6 Stages of Work

Sometimes, you pick up a book that profoundly changes how you see the world.

That recently happened to me when I read Patrick Lencioni’s latest book: The 6 Types of Working Genius.

In this business fable, Lencioni outlines 6 distinct stages of work that any project goes through – be it developing a new product, improving a marketing campaign, or planning a vacation with your family.

And the questions we ask determine which stage we focus on at any given moment.

The 6 stages are:

1. Wonder

Wonder is where you come up with the catalytic question that sparks the project. This is where you step back from the day-to-day work, wonder why things are the way they are, and – in doing so – discover new opportunities.

Questions that shift the focus to Wonder:

“Why is it that ________ ?”
“Why do some ________ and others not?”
“Is there a common factor causing this?”
“This doesn’t make sense. What are we missing?”

2. Invention

Once Wonder has come up with the catalytic question, Invention is where you generate a lot of possible solutions and ideas to that question.

Questions that shift the focus to Invention:

“Oh! What if we tried _________ ?”
“Could we _________ ?”
“What would _________ look like if _______ ?”
“If we could not _________ what else could we try?”

3. Discernment

Once Invention has generated many possible solutions, Discernment is where you evaluate those solutions so the best one gets acted upon.

Discernment is not about subject expertise. It’s about using your intuition to simplify a complex mess down to the most important factors.

As an analogy: The Inventor throws a ton of spaghetti at the wall. The Discerner organizes it and identifies what will stick.

Questions that shift the focus to Discernment:

“What kind of situation is this?”
“How do we know that _________ ?”
“What would have to be true for _________ to be correct?”
“Are all these features really needed?”

4. Galvanizing

Once Discernment has chosen the right solution, Galvanizing is where you rally, compel, and push others to act on it.

This is not a one-time event, but a continuous activity throughout the project to ensure people stay on track.

Questions that shift the focus to Galvanizing:

“What is exciting about this idea?”
“Are we moving forward on this?”
“Did everyone meet their objectives for this week?”
“Are we just going to give up and let this setback defeat us?”

5. Enablement

Once people are galvanized to action, Enablement is where you provide support and remove obstacles so everyone can contribute.

Enablement is also where you ensure the emotional health and interpersonal relationships on the team are kept strong.

Like Galvanizing, this is also a continuous activity.

Questions that shift the focus to Enablement:

“How is everyone doing?”
“What does each team member need?”
“Are you ok?”
“Are we spending enough time to get to know each other on the team?”

6. Tenacity

Finally, Tenacity is where you power through the grunt work to get the project all the way across the finish line. This is also a continuous activity.

Questions that shift the focus to Tenacity:

“What exactly do we need to get done this week?”
“What is the deadline for this?”
”What are we waiting for?”
“Can we stop wasting time and get back to the ‘real’ work?”

Together, the 6 stages form the acronym WIDGET.

In practice, few projects go through these 6 stages in such a straight, linear fashion. You often cycle back to Wonder, Invention, and Discernment multiple times throughout the project as new ideas and issues come up.

However, you can NOT skip or rush through any of these 6 stages of work. That is what causes most projects to fail.

One company that made the error of skipping work stages was Nike. They had one team of product designers all working in Wonder and Invention to develop new product ideas.

But the Nike designers didn’t spend enough time in Discernment or Galvanizing. So their ideas were not fully vetted, and lacked enough momentum behind them.

Instead, the designers threw their ideas over the wall to the implementors, working mostly in Enablement and Tenacity. And little surprise, most of the projects didn’t work out.

The result?

The designers blamed the implementors for failing to execute. And the implementors blamed the designers for giving them poor ideas. 3

The problem at Nike wasn’t that they were asking “bad” Wonder and Invention questions.

The problem was that they were failing to ask enough Discernment and Galvanizing questions. Questions such as:

“What would have to be true for this idea to work?” (D)
“Are all these features really needed?” (D)
“What talent is required to execute this idea?” (D/G)
“What will people find exciting about this idea?” (G)

I can’t emphasize this point enough:

It’s not any single question that matters.

What matters is the right mix of the 6 types of questions – and to ask each question at the right moment.

You could ask the best Discernment questions possible. But if you haven’t generated a large pile of ideas to evaluate, those Discernment questions won’t bring much value.

Likewise, a CEO may have determined the best possible strategy for her company. But if she moves straight to Tenacity – without Galvanizing and Enabling her team around the new direction – the strategy is destined to fail.

Which Work Stages and Questions Do You Naturally Gravitate To?

What’s most fascinating about the WIDGET model is that every person has a natural preference for some stages of work – and a dislike for other stages.

For every person:

2 of the 6 work stages will recharge your energy. 😃🔋
These are called your “Geniuses”. These types of work will feel like play to you, and you have a natural gift for doing them well.
2 of the 6 work stages won’t affect your energy much at all. 😐
These are your “Competencies”. You can do this type of work pretty well, but you won’t necessarily get any joy from it.
2 of the 6 work stages will drain your energy. 😩🪫
These are your “Frustrations”. These are the stages of work you don’t like doing, and often do a poor job at.

The WIDGET model helps predict what work you and your team will naturally be drawn to – and which type of work and questions you are likely to skip.

Take me, for example. My WIDGET profile is as follows:

Geniuses: Wonder and Discernment
Competencies: Invention and Tenacity
Frustrations: Galvanizing and Enablement

Because I have a genius for Wondering and Discerning, I naturally gravitate to ask these types of questions – even when it’s not the right time for them!

One example is when I’m writing or brainstorming. I will spend a lot of time Wondering to come up with a worthy question to tackle.

But then I go almost straight to Discernment with the first 1-2 ideas I came up with in Invention.

And because I rush through the Invention stage, I end up wasting hours polishing my first few ideas – which usually aren’t very good.

What I should be doing is to first come up with many more possible ideas by asking Invention questions, such as:

“What if I instead tried to ________ ?”
“What examples would bring this idea to life?”
“What other topic would be interesting to mention?”

Even when I’m aware of this trap, I still fall into it unless I deliberately remind myself:

“Henrik, now is not the time for Discernment questions. You need to do more Invention first so you have more ideas to work with.”

Again, every one of the 6 work stages are needed. But unless we check ourselves, we will naturally ask questions that shift the focus to our 2 Working Geniuses – even when that’s not what the situation needs.

How to Deal with Work Stages Where You Lack a Genius

If each person only has 2 Working Geniuses, does that mean you can’t get any project completed alone?

Of course not! We are all able to wonder, brainstorm ideas, evaluate options, move others to action, provide support, and execute grunt work.

But what your Working Genius does predict is what types of work you will find energizing, neutral, and frustrating.

To be clear:

Every job and project requires all 6 types of work. None of us get to spend 100% of our time in our 2 Geniuses.

But if you are self-aware of which stages you will find frustrating, you can:

Check yourself so you don’t skip over that stage
Ask a teammate with a Genius for that stage to help out

Let’s look at two stories that illustrate each strategy.

Strategy #1: Check yourself so you don’t skip over a stage

What happens if a company’s executive team lacks Wonder and Invention?

This was the case for a big technology firm with $10-15 billion in annual sales. They rarely stepped back to reflect on how customers’ needs were changing, ask if they were still solving the right problem, or ideate new solutions.

As a result, they had fallen far behind the market in innovation – and had brought in Patrick Lencioni as a coach to help them turn things around.

Lencioni had the executive team take The 6 Working Genius Assessment. Once they realized they lacked in Wonder and Invention, they immediately made two changes:

They set aside time to deliberately Wonder as a team.
They put their Chief Legal Counsel – who had Invention as his Genius – in charge of new technology acquisitions.

Thanks to these changes, their company has again reignited its innovation. 4

Strategy #2: Ask a teammate with a Genius for that stage to help out

Another company Lencioni coached faced a different problem.

Their Head of Sales had been crushing her numbers and built a great sales department during her first years.

But when the market changed, she had really struggled to come up with a new strategy for how to go to market. Things were now so bad the CEO was considering to let her go.

The problem was that none on her team had a Genius for Invention.

So they borrowed a guy from marketing who had Invention as his Genius. And within 4 hours, he had helped them come up with a brand-new strategy.

As the CEO later said:

“I was about to let go off this woman, had a great cultural fit at our company and had gotten her job done so well, just because she didn’t have Invention in her team or in herself.” 5

If you lack the talent needed for a certain stage of work, it can be as easy as borrowing the right person who can fill in the gap.

What Geniuses Are Lacking or Over-Represented on Your Team?

Whenever you pull a team together, the foremost question you should be asking is:

“Does this team have a good balance of the 6 Working Geniuses that matches the challenges they must deal with?”

Ideally, every Genius should be represented. But you will often need a slight weight toward some Geniuses depending on the type of work you’ll be required to do.

For startups, it’s especially important to pay attention to the makeup of the team if you are a:

Founder: When deciding what co-founders and employees to bring on.
Investor: When choosing whether or not to invest in a team. And after investing, what additional talent the team needs to succeed.

When a type of Genius is lacking on a team – or is over-represented – that’s when you risk breaking the chain of productivity.

One example was a startup with 15 employees – but only one person with a Genius for Tenacity.

Guess who everyone went to for getting projects across the finish line? The one person with Tenacity.

And guess who was the most burnt-out person at the company? Again, the poor team member with Tenacity. 6

Likewise, another startup team had 4 co-founders – but all 4 of them had a Genius for Galvanizing.

Not surprisingly, many of their meetings turned into a “galvanizing contest” of who could promote an idea the loudest. 7

It’s Not About “Better” Questions – But Stringing Different Questions into One Symphony

When I started on this essay, I initially thought I would be writing about how to re-frame questions and challenge old assumptions.

But I learned something surprising along the way:

The very reason we ask questions is to move things forward.

But no single type of question can move things forward on its own.

Reading Lencioni’s book helped me realize that there are 6 stages of work to any project. And every stage is needed – and in this order – to get something done:

Without Wonder, we would never stop to question the status quo.
Without Invention, no creativity or new ideas would be born.
Without Discernment, we would act on every idea – good and bad.
Without Galvanizing, there would be no energy to push things forward.
Without Enablement, we would lack the relationship glue that holds our teams together.
Without Tenacity, our garages would overflow with half-done projects that never got finished.

Questions are actually like musical notes. By itself, a single note doesn’t accomplish much.

But when you combine many different notes – and with the right balance and timing – that’s when you create a symphony. 🎶

Likewise, people are much like musicians with instruments. We all have a Genius for playing in 2 of these work stages, and a Frustration for playing in 2 others. While a musician with a flute can play deep, static notes, their natural tendency is to play high and flowing notes.

My original question – “How can we ask better questions?” – is actually like asking: