Often it is the simple and basic question that unlocks the mystery of our business or process problems. What’s more, we don’t have to be trained experts in process improvement techniques to ask the all-important, all-powerful dumb questions.
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I was listening to a friend and colleague describe the course of a “CI event” (continuous improvement meeting) she was asked to attend. Her short tale struck me as fairly common and ordinary, but she made a very profound observation. I’ll tell the short version.
The event was focused to solve a process problem with a scheduling system. Fundamentally, team members and project managers all knew that the dates in the system were bogus, and they pushed them back by a month or more almost as soon as they were published. Yet, they were expected to put resource allocations into the system. The whole scenario described a complete waste of expensive man-hours to produce useless information.
After a long discussion identifying more than 50 different ways the system was broken, the group sat there uncertain how to fix it, but not yet willing to abandon it altogether, either. Finally, my friend spoke up. She asked, “What is the purpose of the system?”
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Comments
Great article!
I've had experiences like that. Look up Quality Facepalm.
Dumb Questions?
Hi Alan,
a nice short article and as a "KISS" kind of person I can full agree with the message.
I just get a bit hung-up on the reference to 'dumb' question, as the way you describe it it seems there is such a thing as a 'smart' question, whereby that question cannot be a simple question (as simple questions has been defined as 'dumb' questions in your article"
I think it is better to conclude => There is no such thing as a stupid/dumb question. A question is always good, as it is asked because the person does not know the answer of the question and the resulting answer to the question will bring always a form of new information.
As for simple versus complex questions => A complex question in almost all cases is a combination of multiple smaller questions. Hence they are complex, as answering the complex question requires the combination of answers to multiple 'sub-questions'. Hence breaking down any complex questions back to it's simplified sub-questions, returns you to a situation where anyone and everyone can understand anders give answer to a given question, making it possible for a biggest-possible selection of people to find answers and maybe more importantly, agreeing on the answer.
Just my 2 cents. Would love to you know response on this comment.
Dumb Questions?
Hi Alan,
a nice short article and as a "KISS" kind of person I can full agree with the message.
I just get a bit hung-up on the reference to 'dumb' question, as the way you describe it it seems there is such a thing as a 'smart' question, whereby that question cannot be a simple question (as simple questions has been defined as 'dumb' questions in your article"
I think it is better to conclude => There is no such thing as a stupid/dumb question. A question is always good, as it is asked because the person does not know the answer of the question and the resulting answer to the question will bring always a form of new information.
As for simple versus complex questions => A complex question in almost all cases is a combination of multiple smaller questions. Hence they are complex, as answering the complex question requires the combination of answers to multiple 'sub-questions'. Hence breaking down any complex questions back to it's simplified sub-questions, returns you to a situation where anyone and everyone can understand anders give answer to a given question, making it possible for a biggest-possible selection of people to find answers and maybe more importantly, agreeing on the answer.
Just my 2 cents. Would love to you know response on this comment.
Dumb, Smart, or Simple Questions?
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