The Center for Creative Community

Question, Question, Who’s Got the Question?

Questioning the Question: Practical Exercises

The Evolution of a Question

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Question, Question, Who’s Got the Question?

Preparation
Before proceeding further with this exercise, please write down a main question you came to this session with. We’ll come back to this question later. For now, just write it down as it occurs to you without much reflection.

First Examples
There’s an old saying that we advance more by finding better questions, than by finding better answers to the old questions. There’s no formula for producing better questions, but there are helpful guidelines. Thus, for any question, ask yourself:

• Are there any hidden assumptions in this question? Yes or no?
• If so, what are these hidden assumptions?
• Can you think of a better questions or questions? (either as an additional or a replacement question.)

Now, in pairs or small groups, apply these guidelines to the following question and see what you come up with.

HOW CAN I DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS IN MY PROGRAM IN THE NEXT 18 MONTHS?

Some comments on this question:
Hidden assumptions here include that we do need more volunteers, and that the proposed rate of increase is a reasonable one. Another hidden assumption might be that program design is just fine now; all we need to do is "fill ‘er up" with more volunteers.

Therefore, better question(s) might be: "How can we decide if more volunteers are needed, and at what rate of increase?" Also, "What is our best present strategy: getting more volunteers for the present program or first changing the program?

Now, here’s another example we can work on together:

WHAT KIND OF LARGE CONFERENCE SHOULD THE CENTER FOR CREATIVE COMMUNITY HOST NEXT SPIRNG IN SANTA FE (OUR HEADQUATRERS)?

Some comments on this question: I actually asked the Center’s Board of Directors a question something like this! Among the glaring assumptions are that the Center should be hosting large conferences of any kind. Even if so, why necessarily in Santa Fe? A better question might be: WHAT SORT OF LEARNING EVENTS, IF ANY, SHOULD THE CENTER FOR CREATIVE COMMUNITY BE SPONSORING OR CO-SPONSORING. Once we have decided this, a second question becomes: WHERE WOULD BE THE BEST LOCATION(S) FOR THESE LEARNING EVENTS? (assuming we decide to have any)

EXERCISE A
In pairs or small groups, ask participants to choose any one of the following questions to work on in the same way as the examples above. If they finish one question, they can go on to any other ifthey wish.

Fifteen to twenty minutes is usually about right for this process. One person in each pair or group should be ready to report their results. Any pair or group that wants to do so can begin, but after every report ask if any other group has analyzed that particular question – the comparisons can be extremely interesting. The discussion following the analysis may easily go as long as 30-45 minutes.

1. How can we start a new (volunteer center, senior volunteer clearinghouse, local professional association? DOVIA) in our community?
2. Why can’t staff accept volunteers more?
3. How can we improve staff training for work with volunteers?
4. What is the influence of volunteerism on pluralism, participation, and democracy?
5. How can we convince executives to allow volunteer coordinators to spend more (100%) of their time on the volunteer program?
6. How can we become better managers?
7. What is the optimum relation between the profit and nonprofit sectors, now and in the future?
8. How can we get people to work together better in groups to achieve common goals?
9. How can we convince more people to participate in Senior Centers?
10. How can I improve training for my board?
11. How can we persuade more minority people to volunteer for human service agency volunteer programs?
12. How can we get people to write more precise job descriptions for youth volunteers?
13. What kinds of information do I need to make the best possible decision on whether or not to go for professional certification in volunteer administration?
14. Does our program want to renew its subscription this year for _____? (name of professional journal)
15. Any other important question you can think of.

Comments on Some of the Exercise Questions:
…Questions #2, 3, 6, 10 and maybe some others are dealt with also in other exercises. Note, however, that in some situations #10 may be the right question as phrased now, if in fact you have appropriate people on your board, but they need more training. Other questions that might be about as good as your can get them now are 7, 13, and 14 (though improvement – nitpickingly? – is always possible). The main point, however, is that, far from destroying every question the process can actually reaffirm it even more strongly as the right question.

As for other questions –

4. What if there isn’t any influence….
5. What if it were more valuable to move up to supervision of a larger package of "community relations" or resource development, with less hands-on time on the volunteer program, and maybe an assistant to help you there. ALSO, maybe having a full-time volunteer specialist simply isolates the volunteer program more.

8. People can contribute to common goals as individuals, too, solo.
9. What about all the people who needs are not met by Senior Centers as they exist now? What about Senior Centers (rather than Seniors) doing more of the changing?

11. Assuming we could all agree on what we mean by "minority" (hardly likely), this question lumps together all minority people as if their motivations and situations were identical – a rather absurd assumption. Beyond that, the question assumes that a) agency volunteer programs are the most meaningful, productive kinds of involvement for any given minority group – maybe they aren’t. b) the question also seems to assume that the minority people will be doing the changing, to become motivated by the agency program as is, rather than the program changing to be more satisfying for minority people.
12. The wording seems to assume that (all) youth seek or need the additional structure of precise job descriptions. Maybe some of them want more freedom to decide the manner and style of helping most congenial to them.

EXERCISE B (About 20-30 minutes)
Ask people to pair up with another participant, or get in small groups of 3 or 4, and apply the questions review process of Exercise A to the original question they recorded at the beginning of this session (see section on Preparation). Participants should then be ready to share with the total group what happened to their question, if anything; how their question might have been "improved" or at least changed by the process; and how they felt about this.

• The Center for Creative Community
• P. O. Box 2427
• Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504

 

Questioning the Question: Practical Exercises

There’s an old saying that we advance less by finding better answers to the old questions, than by finding better questions. That process of discovering better questions may be a key component in think tanks. The danger is that the process can be used in a destructively critical fashion rather than helpfully and compassionately. People do have deep investments in their questions.

1. Before proceeding to the rest of this exercise, PLEASE FOCUS AND RECORD HERE, THE MAIN QUESTION YOU CAME WITH.
2. Alone or in a small group, please CHOOSE SOME OF ALL OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTONS AND FOR EACH DECIDE;

• Are there any hidden assumptions in this question?
• If so, what are these hidden assumptions?
• Can you think of a better questions or questions?
• (Either as an additional or a replacement question)

Example: How can I double the number of volunteers in my program in the next 18 months?

Hidden assumptions include that we do need more volunteers, and even if so, that the proposed rate of increase is an effective or reasonable one. Another hidden assumption might be that program design is just fine now; all we need to do it "fill ‘er up" with more volunteers.

In light of all this, a better question(s) might be: "How can we decide if more volunteers are needed, and at what rate of increase?" Also, "What is our best present strategy: getting more volunteers for the present program or first changing the program?"

Now, try your hand at your choice of the following questions:

• How can we start a new (VAC, RSVP, DOVIA) in our town?
• WHY CAN’T STAFF ACCEPT VOLUNTEERS MORE?
• What kind of large conference should the Center for Creative Community host next spring in Santa Fe?
• How can we improve staff training for work with volunteers?
• What is the influence of volunteerism on pluralism, participation, and democracy?
• How can we convince executives to allow volunteer coordinators to spend more (100%) of their time on the volunteer program?
• HOW CAN WE BECOME BETTER MANAGERS?
• What is the optimum relation between the profit and nonprofit sectors, now and in the future?
• HOW CAN WE GET PEOPLE TO WORK TOGETHER BETTER INGROUPS TO ACHIEVE COMMON GOALS?
• How can we convince more people to participate in senior Centers?
• How can I improve training for my board?
• HOW CAN WE PERSUADE MORE MINORITY PEOPLE TO VOLUNTEER FOR HUMAN SERVICE AGENCY VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS.
• How can we get people to write more precise job descriptions for youth volunteers?

NOW THAT YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH THE PROCESS, CAN YOU VISUALIZE AN INSTANCE IN WHICH THE ORIGINAL QUESTION WOULD NOT ONLY "SURVIVE" THE ABOVE SCRUTINY, BUT ACUTALLY COME THROUGH EVEN MORE CONFIDENTLY AS THE RIGHT QUESTION? If you can please give us an example or two.

1. NOW PLEASE PAIR UP WITH ANOTHER PARTICIPANT, OR GET IN A SMALL GROUP OF THREE OR FOUR, AND APPLY THE QUESTION REVIEW PROCESS (in section B) TO YOUR OWN QUESTION (in Section A).

Please be prepared to share with the group, as you may wish, what happened to your question; whether what happened actually "improved the question," and how you felt about the process.

 THE EVOLUTION OF A QUESTION

Background
In "Question, Question, Who's Got the Question?". the task was to identify hidden assumptions in a question and remove them by rephrasing the question. "How can we start a new volunteer center in our community?" which assumes that such a center is desirable, is re-cast to: "How can we decide whether or not our community needs a new volunteer center?

The present exercise pushes the process a step further. Instead of just removing hidden assumptions, we actively explore issues raised by these assumptions, and this can result in the articulation of alternative assumptions.

Examples
Suppose the starting question was "How can we design staff training for the use of volunteers?" Straightforward problem-solving would tend to accept the question pretty much as given, brainstorm possible solutions, and shape an action plan from the higher-priority ones. By contrast, the creative gadfly would not only identify the assumptions in the question, but identify and analyze alternative assumptions. For example:

• Will improved staff training on the use of volunteers help at all if staff isn't first motivated to work with volunteers? Or
• Why do we always assume that improving staff-volunteer relations means that staff has to change? Or
• How about more emphasis on changing the behavior of volunteers or the volunteer coordinator? Or
• After decades of frustration, why are we still trying to get volunteers genuinely, welcomed as partners with staff in the human service delivery system? The same energy might be better invested in identifying and developing other avenues for volunteer contribution to their communities.

Another example might be the starting question: "How can we interest more people in our certification program?" Problem-solvers would likely proceed quite directly to suggestions for marketing the certification program more effectively. The responsible iconoclast, however, would be more inclined to want to validate the certification program as valuable, before any knee-jerk-efforts at implementing it. Generally, the change is from "how can we get" to "why do we want" as follows:

"Why do we want ... more people to sign up for our certification program?

The "why" in turn may break down into questions such as:

Who benefits most from this program (demonstrably)?

Who, if anyone, will lose as others benefit from this program?

These "who" questions might finally evolve into WHAT IF's as follows:

What if there were no such certification program? What would it be like?

- What would it be like if the certification program had 100% participation of eligibles?

- What would it be like during a transitional stage in which many people in the field were certified and many others were not?

- What changes in the certification program might make it more marketable? useful? To whom?

- What if we concentrated more on certifying volunteer programs/organizations than individual volunteer administrators?

I deliberately picked the certification example because it is just the kind of crucial issue we avoid discussing on a "why" or "what if" basis. Such discussion is widely considered discourteous to people who have so much invested in the program even though, ironically, it may only result in placing their belief on a firmer footing! In any event, this example illustrates why serious thinking is not usually the way to win popularity contests.

Now here's a third and final example of the evolution of a question:

"How can we give more help to those (poor, weak, disadvantaged, helpless) people?" becomes, via the making of "opposite" assumptions:

- How can they help us more? or

- How can they help themselves more?

What we have here, especially in the first version above, is the kind of subject- predicate reversal discussed elsewhere in "Upside Down and Inside Out. " This apparently simple "gimmick" can open up vast possibilities of profound importance. Thus, historically, "How can we do more for those poor old folks?" became, through someone's concerned questioning of the question, "How, also, can they do more for us?" or "for themselves?"

And Senior volunteer programs were born!

EXERCISES (Anywhere from 20-60 minutes)
In pairs or small groups, ask participants to pick other popular or significant questions on volunteerism, and subject them to the same sort of analysis. If the group has difficulty thinking of such questions, they might start with some of the questions in the previous exercise, "Question Question, Who's Got the Question?" groups then share their results for discussion with the group-at-large.

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The Center for Creative Community
P.O. Box 2427
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504
(505) 983-8414