Status Updates From Q: The Hidden Power of Ques...

"Good questioning in a military context echoes its origins as a basic survival tool. Questioning has deep evolutionary roots, serving as a bedrock of survival for all but the most primitive animal species. From nematodes to penguins to chimpanzees and humans, questioning constitutes an essential tool for charting a course through an information-rich world and overcoming dynamic ecological challenges.

"we cannot ask meaningful questions about unknown unknowns; we don’t know what we don’t know to ask. ..Trying to ask a question without sufficient background knowledge is like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces missing from the box. It’s hard to know where to start, and you are unlikely to end up with a full picture.

"Good questioning is not simply about asking lots of questions[, but] a skill that requires subtle judgements concerning the context, the people, existing power dynamics, competing pressures and demands, and the information sources available. Good questions are the right questions asked in the right way, at the right time and place, to the right person or source, for the right reasons ..before rushing to answers.

"we stop asking questions in school because we are not taught or incentivised to do so[,] ‘tamed’ by educational experiences. ..the power of questions for effective, confident and autonomous learning – a benefit no less valuable in our adult lives than it is in our early years[-] ..evaporate like rain in the desert when we enter the formal learning environment of answer-oriented education.