You’ve heard it before. “There are no stupid questions. The only stupid question is the one that’s not asked.”
The usual context is a desire to get people to raise issues that are on their minds. Well intentioned but simply not true.
So here, just to ensure that there is full understanding, are a few stupid questions.
The question asked to demonstrate the asker’s superiority in position, or power. It goes like this. The top dog or dogess asks a subordinate leader for a specific piece of detail/minutia within the subordinate leader’s span of control but at a level of detail that is not in top of mind. The info is available and retrievable yet the CEO derides the Sr VP of sales because spur of the moment he does not know exactly how many times the territory manager took Costco’s downtown St. Louis store beverage manager to lunch over the past year. Boss doesn’t really care about the answer or she would have asked the question differently.
Criticism with a question mark. “Are you an idiot or what?”
The I’m smart and your dumb question. The impertinent question that the asker knows the person being ask cannot answer. This is commonly used to disrupt, distract or demean. It is asked out of context and exemplified by the leader with engineering background who asks the leader with liberal arts background, “So, Mary, tell me, what is the zeroth law of thermodynamics?” *
If your intention is to build a high performing team, quality relationships and trust stop playing question games. Ask questions that increase the pool of shared knowledge and minimize personal and team blind spots. I’m the Outsider and that’s what I think.
* Zeroth law – It is the definition of thermodynamic equilibrium. When two systems are put in contact with each other, energy and/or matter will be exchanged between them unless they are in thermodynamic equilibrium. In other word, two systems are in thermodynamic equilibrium with each other if they stay the same after being put in contact.
