One of my favorite radio programs is Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me. Each week the show’s producers select several listeners for each show and call them to appear on the program, playing various games featuring questions based on the week’s news. In most cases, the contestants receive a bit of latitude in getting the correct answer, such as receiving another guess and a hint should they initially guess wrong, or getting credit for correctly identifying part of the answer.

Recently after listening to a coach leader complain about her direct reports lining up outside her office daily waiting for her to provide answers to all their questions, I wondered how her role would be different if she were the one asking the questions? A visual of her doing the asking and the recipient imploring, “Wait, wait, don’t tell me!” flashed mischievously through my head. And yet, what is it that makes that idea unrealistic?

What if in an ideal world, our direct reports and colleagues invited questions rather than answers and advice, and what if they asked for more time to think about and imagine their own possibilities and pathways? In our current climate of quick fixes, quick responses, quick answers, how is it that we’ve strayed from the idea of “sitting with” and “living with” a question? The concept of thinking through an answer may be foreign when we are accustomed to having our queries answered quickly and in bite-sized pieces.

Often the worst thing we can do with a difficult question is answer it too quickly or even answer it at all. “What if” possibilities and fresh new ideas can take time to percolate and form. As coach leaders, our primary goal should be to ask powerful questions and invite those whom we lead to make the connections. This kind of thinking requires a change in mindset and a change in organizational culture. How will you persevere in leading connective inquiry within your organization? How will you create a climate of risk taking both in questioning and answering? How will you scaffold the best thinking through probing, prompting, and providing feedback? How will you nurture those whom you lead to demand, “Wait, wait don’t tell me”?

By Reba Schumacher, PCC