Humble Inquiry book club questions

1. 1.

   How often do you ask questions in your management conversations? Keep a rough count for a week. What does the ratio of asking to telling reveal?

2. 2.

   Schein says American culture rewards telling and penalizes not-knowing. Does this resonate with your experience? What are the signals in your organization that tell people it's unsafe not to know?

3. 3.

   What's a situation in your recent professional experience where someone didn't tell you something important because you didn't ask? What would humble inquiry have surfaced?

4. 4.

   Distinguish between a question you ask from genuine curiosity and a question you ask to guide someone to your answer. In the last week, which type did you use more often?

5. 5.

   Schein argues that leaders must build relationships before they can exercise influence. How much time do you currently invest in relationship-building before starting to direct?

6. 6.

   What does it feel like to be asked a genuinely curious question by someone in authority? How rare is that experience in your working life?

7. 7.

   Where in your organization is important information not traveling upward because no one in authority is asking? What would happen if it did?

8. 8.

   The book is short and meditative. Does Schein's late-career reflective tone add to or detract from the argument?

9. 9.

   In what situations do you most need to ask rather than tell, and find it hardest to do so? What's driving the impulse to tell?

10. 10.

    Is there a difference between humble inquiry as a personal practice and as an organizational value? What would need to change for your team to adopt it as a norm?

11. 11.

    Schein distinguishes four types of questions. Which one do you catch yourself using most when you think you're asking but are actually telling?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.