The 6Q Framework for Asking Powerful Questions

You’re having the one-on-one meeting with your manager and she is presenting the new tool she has developed that will revolutionize the way your organization measures its social and environmental impact. This will be presented later at the board meeting. Your manager asks you, “do you have any questions?” You’ve understood everything she explained, but she wants you to think through it. It’s important for you to look, see, and imagine from different perspectives so that the team is better prepared for the questions the board may ask. There is an awkward silence, and after some time all you say are four words — “this all sounds good”. Clearly, your manager isn’t impressed with this and she may even think that you were not interested in what she presented. You do not want this to come out, but you also don’t know how to ask questions that inspire. In this article, I will explain how to ask powerful questions that facilitate collaboration and innovation across teams.

The 6Q Framework

The 6Q (6 Questions) Framework is a set of thinking questions that allow you to see a situation from multiple perspectives and points of view. This fosters creativity, innovation, and collaboration. You can use 6Q Framework while solving problems while listening to new ideas being presented to you, or while you are developing new products too. Let us go to the 6Q Framework now. This framework is made up of six questions.

WHO/WHAT + HOW MUCH + WHEN + WHERE = HOW -> WHY

Let us go into detail about each question with the help of the same example. Your manager has come up with a new tool that will allow your organization to measure its social and environmental impact. The assignment at hand is how to think through the situation and put forward some questions.

Disclaimer: This is not an exhaustive list of questions. Depending upon the past experiences and subject-matter expertise, different people can have different sets of questions.

WHO/WHAT

These are the kind of questions that help you get information on who and what aspects of people, places, and things. In our example, the list of possible questions could be -

1. Who is responsible for maintaining the tool?
2. What will the staff need to know to use this tool?
3. What are the operational considerations of the tool?

HOW MUCH

These questions help you gain information on quantitative aspects. It is related to the measurement and counting of things. For example, some questions could be -

1. How much will the tool cost?
2. How many people can use the tool at the same time?
3. How many indicators can we measure using this tool?

WHEN

These questions allow you to look at the temporal characteristics of things. It relates to the sequencing and planning of events. For example,

1. When will the tool become operational?
2. How often will the tool be updated?
3. When is the project going to get launched?
4. How long will the development process last?

WHERE

These questions help you gain an understanding of spatial elements of stuff. It relates not only to geographical space, but also the non-geographical space such as how the tool fits in the strategy of the organization. For example,

1. Where will this tool live?
2. Where does this tool fit in the technological innovation of our organization?
3. Where will the development take place? In-house or outsourced?

The next two questions are very important questions, as they connect the above four questions into a single frame and give the rationale that lies behind what we are doing. The first of these two is “HOW” and the second is “WHY”

HOW

These questions help you understand the cause-and-effect relationships as well as how different parts interact with and influence each other. For example,

1. How does this tool allow us to accomplish more?
2. How does the tool fit into our strategy?
3. How is this tool going to interact with our current established measurement systems?
4. How will this tool bring value to our organization?

WHY

The last and most important questions come under the set of “WHY QUESTIONS”. These kinds of questions should be asked before the project starts, during the project, as well as at the end of the project. These are big-picture ideas that help align the team to the vision and mission of the organization. Some questions that come under this set include -

1. Why are we measuring social and environmental impact?
2. Why is it important for us to develop this tool?
3. Why is the management involved in the success of this tool?
4. Why am I doing this?

Conclusion

As you have seen there can be many more questions that you can ask when you are shown an idea or a plan. This is helpful not just for critically analyzing a project, but also for developing your own ideas or project. Critically thinking through a task is helpful for your own learning, as well as for the growth of the organization.

Let me know if you have more frameworks for asking questions!

Originally published at https://aayushmalik.substack.com on May 16, 2022.