Using Positive Questions

While in Dallas at ASTD last week, I picked up a booked that I have had on my buy list for a few years. It is called Encyclopedia of Positive Questions - Volume One by experts in Appreciative Inquiry, Cooperrider, Whitney, Trosten-Bloom and Kaplin.

At the beginning of the book they offer these 11 ways to use positive questions.

• Get staff meetings off to a good start
• Coach for high performance
• Transform "problem talk" into "possibility talk"
• Create dialogue to foster shared meaning
• Demonstrate positive intent and trust with customers
• Create a learning organization
• Build high performance teams
• Conduct project reviews that make a difference
• Build self-esteem
• Plan a course of action for the future
• Create your own interview guide

Positive questions can do all that? Asking great questions can make a big difference to how your teams feel and perform. Here are just a few of the questions from the book. I think every manager ought to have a copy of this book.

Tell me about a time when compelling communication allowed you and another person to really connect and to work together exceptionally well. What was the situation? What was it about you, the other person, and the communication that made this possible?

Dream into the future...your organization and your community have a wonderful mutual partnership. What does this look like? What three things might have been done in order to create this partnership?

Tell me about a time when you were part of an exceptional cooperation with a customer or customer group. How did this happen? What made it so special? What did you learn from the experience?

When you reflect on your time with this organization, what is the greatest contribution it has made to you and your life?

Where in the organization is participatory decision-making at its best? What contributes to it? How does it work?

Tell me about a time that was particularly fun at work. What was the high point of this time? What made it fun?

When people are in leadership positions, what two or three things can they do that will help you be the best you can be?

If positive energy were the flame of the organization, how would you spark it? How would you fuel it to keep it burning bright?

What trends and changes are you seeing in the world that excite you and give you a sense of the confidence in the possibilities for the organization's future?

Cool questions and just a sampling. I like questions like these, they help expand the mind and prevent us from going to that cold, dark, cynical small place we all have in our brains (some more than others!).

If you were building the project from the ground up and resources were not a barrier, what would you do?

What's the wildest idea that just might work?

Comments

[Linda Murfin, CTC]

Lisa - Glad I went back to your blog. I have completed all the other books you have recommended during the Cruise West webinars and have been longing for more. Ta da - right here on your blog are TWO! Hooray!
If you wish to help me get postings to my blog, the address is www.abovethecrowds.blogspot.com.
Thanks!
Linda

[Gloria Luzier]

Lisa -- Really GREAT questions, indeed! Thanks for this post ... I'm on my way to find a copy of this book for sure! ~ Gloria

[Lisa Haneberg]

Gloria: Enjoy the book!

Linda: I checked out your blog and I love it. You do not allow anaonymous comments and I don't want to sign up for a blogger account, so I can't leave a comment for you. If I could, here is what it would say:

I am humbled by your words and I love your blog. Very real and mighty interesting.

Thanks so much for mentioning my blog and books and such. I am very glad you are enjoying the book recommendations.

Bravo for you for chucking the TV - I'm in awe!

Not sure if I already recommended this one to you, but The Art of Possibility is a favorite of mine.

[annette]

Lisa - I'm a huge fan of Appreciative Inquiry and use the principles very regularly in my work and it actually does work. What you pay attention to - you get more of. It's so simple it's astounding. I've modified some of this approach into what I call "Dynamic Participation" and I've a short piece over on my blog about it - stop by if you have a chance
http://www.inter-actions.biz/blog/?p=14

[jimineykbc]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone here has a habit of coming up with cool business ideas out of nowhere, but never got around to attempting them.
Here are mine:
consumer generated power
household recycling plants
innovative ringtones (like [url=http://www.news.com/5208-1033_3-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=31380&messageID=312987]fart ringtones[/url] for young people)
retail approach to recycling
carbon offsets by sms

share yours if you don't mind revealing your genius. :)