When I was recently asked why I think philosophy has gained more traction in management thinking during the past few years, I thought about the pervasive influence that social psychology has had on organizations for decades. Is philosophy feeding an insatiable hunger for new management theories? Or is the growing interest in philosophy a sign of something else?
The German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer once remarked that “things that change force themselves on our attention far more than those that remain the same.” This suggests that part of the reason leaders are so concerned with change and transformation is that it is all they see.
In a world where technology, climate, politics, public sentiment, markets, and consumer behavior change by the minute, it’s only natural that leaders are in constant search of new and better ways to adapt. But perhaps the constant flow of new management theories is not the answer to the problems leaders face; they might be better off with insights that have stood the test of time.
When books on Stoic philosophy sell millions of copies by teaching people how to live in accordance with ancient virtues, it is a sign that more and more people are looking to the past for guidance. Rather than trusting the newest theory to provide the answer to our questions, we trust the oldest thinkers to tell us what to do.
That is also my experience when leaders ask me how to become better at asking questions. Having spent 20 years doing philosophical and practical research into the power of questions, I am expected to have some proven techniques that can help all leaders ask all the right questions.
Unfortunately, I must disappoint them. Unlike social scientists, philosophers are not in the business of telling people how to think and what to do. As Gadamer emphasized in Truth and Method: “My real concern was and is philosophic: not what we do or what we ought to do, but what happens to us over and above our wanting and doing.”
“Throughout thousands of years of philosophical history, there has never been a truth, theory, or technique that has been as powerful and effective as questioning at making people consider their own position, connect with each other, and commit to a shared purpose. ”
This means that the best way for leaders (and everyone else) to use philosophy is to become aware of the secrets that would otherwise escape their attention. Being a philosopher of questions, I have discovered six secrets every leader should know:
No matter how well thought out a management theory, and no matter how quickly generative AI can answer a question, leaders will always have more problems to solve and questions to ask. But why has questioning not been replaced by a more effective management technique during the constant optimization of recent years? What is it about questions that make them resist the evolution of times and theories?
The short answer is that questioning is a human superpower. Throughout thousands of years of philosophical history, there has never been a truth, theory, or technique that has been as powerful and effective as questioning at making people consider their own position, connect with each other, and commit to a shared purpose.
That is why philosophers have rejected one answer after another and stuck to the questions. And that is why successful leaders love questions.
When something is very powerful, two things typically happen: first, it is monopolized by people who want to control other people, and second, the people who have the monopoly build systems and structures that ensure they stay in power.
This is also the case with questions. When Plato had Socrates ask almost all the questions in his world-famous dialogues, he not only laid the foundation for a 2,400-year-old belief that some questions are more insightful than others, but he also planted the idea that some people are more entitled to ask questions than others.
This idea is at the heart of key societal institutions, such as courtrooms, classrooms, and newsrooms, where we have an unspoken contract that says only lawyers, teachers, and journalists are entitled to ask questions. In a business context, that entitlement has been enjoyed chiefly by corporate leaders and HR. And it is continuously maintained and reinforced by the coaching, interview, and survey techniques leaders and consultants use to understand and develop organizations.
When I realized that an age-old monopolization of questions keeps employees in today’s companies in a position where they get to respond to lots of questions in surveys, etc., but rarely get to proactively ask them, I couldn’t help but think of German American phenomenologist, Erwin W Straus.
In his 1955 article, “Man, A Questioning Being”, Straus wrote that questions are as revealing as dreams, or even more so. “As their selection depends on historical, social, and cultural conditions, a full inventory of the questions that have animated and agitated or failed to disquiet a person, a nation, or an epoch gives us deep historical insight.”
“Shadow questions are questions that no one says out loud, but that everyone needs to discuss before they can move forward together. These questions hide in the shadows of other questions, and it is only by making room for and analyzing the questions employees ask each other that leaders can gain access to them. ”
Translated into modern management jargon, this means that the best source for understanding the unspoken biases that shape organizational behavior are the questions employees ask themselves and each other. By only using techniques that prevent employees from asking questions, leaders also prevent themselves from getting valuable data on who and what is important for their company to succeed.
When leaders realize they have no choice but to make room for other people’s questions, their next concern is whether their employees know how to ask relevant questions. Just as they attend keynotes and seek advice on how to ask better questions themselves, they want their employees to be taught and trained to ask good questions.
Countless times I have heard myself quote Straus as saying that the act of questioning cannot be taught. And I never forget his small but essential addition: “Nor does it require a teacher.” In my experience, it’s not until they try one of the “flipped survey” tools I invented to make it easy for people to ask their own questions that leaders begin to trust their and their employees’ innate human ability to ask relevant and insightful questions.
Qvest and Question Jam are digital platforms that prompt people to consider their own position, connect with each other, and commit to a shared purpose. While leaders use Qvest to empower employees to take responsibility for the company’s future, they use Question Jam to boost curiosity and collaboration in meetings.
In the 2020s, it is widely assumed that there are no human traits or tasks that will not be taken over by artificial intelligence in the near future. Yet the innate human superpower to ask relevant questions seems to be an exception. Not only is AI from its inception and at its core designed to provide answers, it is also unable to deal appropriately with what I call “shadow questions.”
Shadow questions are questions that no one says out loud, but that everyone needs to discuss before they can move forward together. These questions hide in the shadows of other questions, and it is only by making room for and analyzing the questions employees ask each other that leaders can gain access to them.
One of the most important tasks when leading in the AI age is to ensure that no one is too busy, one-sided, or short-sighted to ask the questions that create common ground.
The final secret every leader should know about questions is that beneath all the questions and shadow questions people ask – and don’t ask – is a foundation of cultural differences in how people use questions to allocate responsibility.
This is the most exciting secret I have come across in my research into the nature and impact of questions. I spent two years doing observational studies and analysis of school classes where Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and Danish children were taught in their respective native languages.
My studies resulted in three archetypes for how people living in different language cultures use questions to either assume responsibility themselves, impose responsibility on others, or empower shared responsibility.
Just as no management theory has all the answers to the problems leaders face, philosophy cannot help leaders ask all the right questions.
But philosophy can help leaders translate 2,400 years of experience asking questions into a systematic way of discovering and discussing the organizational secrets that would otherwise escape their attention. And that may very well be what makes the difference as to whether their company succeeds.
In her new book, Questions, Pia Lauritzen explores the philosophy behind questioning and its function as a unifier. As both a development tool and a bridge to understanding, questions are the key to understanding why we think and act as we do. She examines how questioning has changed throughout history and what implications this evolution has for today. Questions is published by Johns Hopkins University Press and is available for sale online.Â
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