Season 2 Episode 30 – Get to the Heart of the Issue with These Questions

“’Why’ questions get us to the outcome or purpose. ‘What’ questions get us to the action.” – Kari Granger

Curiosity levels up any professional’s ability to address problems without causing others to become defensive. And, it turns out what we get curious about makes a difference! Different questions trigger our brains to produce different types of answers. Join Kari Granger and Paul Adams as they guide us through what questions to ask to get to the core of a breakdown and back in action again!

In This Episode:

00:52 – Introducing today’s topic: Get to the Heart of the Issue with These Questions

02:30 – Revisiting the importance of curiosity – Ep. 29: How to Create Breakthroughs with Anyone

03:40 – The difference between ‘Why’ questions and ‘What’ questions

05:09 – Paul shares his experience with asking ‘Why’ questions

06:25 – Kari and Paul experiment with a ‘Why’ questions

08:42 – Kari and Paul experiment with ‘What’ questions

11:37 – Reflecting on best practices for getting to the heart of the issue

13:35 – The ‘Five Why’ philosophy

15:43 – The ‘Marker Incident of 2015’

21:58 – The reaction Kari received from executives by asking ‘What’ questions to get to the heart of the matter

23:07 – Kari leaves the audience with three key anchor points (including, a reference to Ep. 19: Getting Things Done Isn’t Accountability)

23:38 – Paul encourages the audience to share this episode of the podcast

Quotes:

“’Why’ questions produce explanations. Explanations come from the creative side of the brain, not from the area of the brain that references what happened.” – Kari Granger 

“When we go down the ‘Why’ questioning lane, we get into big, contextual domains — far from the result we’re trying to produce.” – Kari Granger 

“’Why’ questions get us to the outcome or purpose. ‘What’ questions get us to the action.” – Kari Granger 

“‘What’ questions allow us to quickly intervene in what isn’t working so we can fulfill on what matters to us.” – Kari Granger 

“When you need to tactically address breakdowns and get back in action, ‘what questions’ are a tool for zeroing in on the specific actions were or weren’t taken and identifying what new actions would be productive.” – Kari Granger 


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Links:

Kari’s Website

Paul’s Website

Paul’s Other Podcast: Your Business Your Wealth 

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Acknowledgements:
Our work is mosaic art. We read, study, and practice many philosophies, methodologies, and modalities of human performance, to ensure that our approach best serves our clients. We would like to acknowledge all of the thought leaders and organizations, whose ground-breaking work has influenced the Granger Network approach – especially Fernando Flores, Jim Selman, Michael C. Jensen, Julio Olalla, Pluralistic Networks, The Newfield Network, and the Strozzi Institute.

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