Questions matter

"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions."

Naguib Mahfouz (Nobel Prize Winner)

It seems far harder to ask a really good question than to supply a correct answer - yet we tend to value answer people (aka experts) way above folks that ask 'dumb' questions. Reading this Brown & Isaacs article really brought home to me the power of dialog & a good question and made me far more aware of the subtle role that questions play in knowledge elicitation and transfers.

http://www.theworldcafe.com/Conversation.pdf

We use questions in group exploration & inquiry, as a way of teaching to probe and elicit further information and to capture implicit knowledge. Question skills are a large part of knowledge work - how you ask, when you ask, whom you ask, what you ask, why you are asking, are key issues that need reflection empathy and care.

Questions you ask yourself

Spark reflection, uncover knowledge gaps and help to make connections. Here is a webpage on using questions effectively

Keeping questions

There is a special role in virtual communities called "keeper of the questions" to gather key questions so they are not lost in the flurry of text, buried by new topics and are set aside so we can return to those gems and continually seek improvements to our answers or solutions.

* Questions are very strong attractors in the chaos of ideas, they gather, focus, attract and energize the conversation.

* Only? questions have the power to beak our current mindsets, they set in motion the deep reflection needed to alter our beliefs.

* It is the place and the space 'between not knowing and our desire to know' where we are most attentive, self-aware and alive. Questions hold the key to this special area.

* Compelling and quality questions drive knowledge creation and expansion in a fundamental way.

* Knowledge emerges around good questions.

* Questions energize and glue our conversation, draw people into the circle to participate and gather diverse opinions.

* Questions keep the conversation moving forward, awaken dormant discourse and may be used to guide the subject back on course.

Comments

[wuyue]

Very excellent, I have learnt lot of things from you.

[David Locke]

Answers are the infons of a taxonomy. The infons gave rise to the taxons or decisions, so the taxonomy runs from the root to the taxons and ultimately to the infons, to the answers: decision, decision, decision, ...., decision, answer.

Questions are the jello into which the taxonomy is placed.

In an ontology, different sortables create different points of view. So you have the approved point of view. These are the answers. The unapproved points of view are the questions. These points of view are mutually opaque. Someone that sees one cannot see the other in the same way that one that sees it can.

In ontologies, you end up with peach and lemon jello, and a mix between the two.

Postmodernist ethnographies try to overcome the need for the translator, but the borders still mix. Creole happens.

These things happen because a question cannot be answered in any fixed and permanent manner. 1+1=2, only as long as some topologist doesn't come along and insist on base 2.5.

In a sense, the visual I got a few weeks ago when I was exploring the Special Theory of Relativity was a sheet that drooped down on a table top. The ends were high and middle was flat. The flat area was the answers. The areas of divergence were the questions.

Answers are stable for the moment. Questions are still emergent.