I beg you to have patience…and try to love the questions themselves…live the questions now. –Rainer Maria Rilke
Gentle Reader, if you have been following my postings these many years you know that I love questions. You know that I believe that the questions we muse will determine the path(s) we choose. You know that I believe that we offer questions in order to confirm or affirm. You know that I believe that we ask questions from a place of not-knowing and we also ask questions from a place of deep knowing. You know that in offering a question I do so in order to seek an answer and that I might also be seeking a response, not an answer.
For example: Many years ago I was a thought-partner to the owner of a successful ‘professional’ organization. One morning he met me with the most disturbed look upon his face. As soon as we sat down he told me that they had, literally, lost 20% of their business overnight. After he described what had caused this loss he took a few deep breaths. After a few minutes of silence I asked him ‘what are two or three of the burning questions you are now holding?’ He reflected for a few minutes and then offered me two of them; he paused a bit and continued with ‘the most important question is how many people must we now lay off AND how do we lay people off in the most humane, caring manner?’
A two-part crucial question. We sat in silence for a few minutes. He then asked me if there was another question or two that might be helpful to frame. I offered him this one: What would it take in order for you to not lay anybody off? Months ago he had developed what I call a ‘Good Thinking Team’ of twelve employees. He called them together. He divided the team into two thinking teams and he gave each team one of the two questions (the one he emerged and the one I emerged). The teams then spent one hour engaging their question. The CFO was not on one of these teams (nor were the three Executive Vice-Presidents).
When the teams reconvened they were joined by the CFO and the three Executive Vice-Presidents. The CFO was visibly excited. She asked if she might share something that might help them. The group immediately agreed to listen. She then said that the second question intrigued her and that she had spent about 40 minutes with the question. She then handed out a sheet to each person and on the sheet was a response to the second question. She noted that if each employee would take a 3% pay cut and each Executive would take a 5% pay cut and do this for one year that they would not have to lay anybody off and they would also have the time to develop new business. They embraced the idea and within a few days they implemented it and within a year they had not only developed new business they had given a bonus to each employee. The question mused determined the path.
We will continue with our exploration of the importance of questions next time.
It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. –Eugene Ionesco
Searcher-Seeker 