There is a useful model that breaks knowledge into:
- what we know
- what we know we dont know and
- what we don’t know we don’t know.
It’s a great reminder of uncertainty and our lack of awareness of all the issues in the problem we are trying to solve, especially in bigger systems. Why is this important? because the most critical part of solving a problem is asking the right question, and to ask “the” right question you need to ask lots and lots of questions. By answering lots of questions you expand the “what you know you know” and the “what you know you dont know”.
Answers mirror the questions they rise, or fall, to meet
Our business cultures are focused on quick results, quick answers, but sometimes slow is better if it creates a 10x better outcome. By slow I don’t mean “thinking” or “brainstorming” or analyses paralysis , but a systemic process using multiple mental models and research tools that expose different facets of a problem… That make you ask better quality questions.
There are too few workshops discussing what the right question is, and too many workshops glibly power-pointing the same answer that you gave a client last week.
By Nevo Hadas – Nevo is the founding partner of DYDX and has led the development of “The Culture Canvas”—an open-source framework that makes work culture actionable for businesses to shape their team’s behaviours—as well as the latest ebook “me.we.us – Remote Team Management”, which is available for free download, and the 10-minute “Remote Team Maturity” assessment tool designed to help companies measure the effectiveness of their remote teams.
