On questions
Background
What is a question?
'a sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information' from the oxford languages
Why are questions important?
Our brains are hard-wired to ask and answer questions.
Questions invite thinking, dialogue and conversations.
Questions invite answers and solutions.
Questions are problems that need solving.
They can be inspiring, transformational (change perspective) and enable action.
They can be threatening or transactional.
Can questions be threatening or have a negative impact?
Types of questions
Socratic questions
Areas: ethics, clinical, political etc
Open-questions versus closed-questions
Transactional versus transformational questions
What, why, how questions
Chronos questions: timed sequentially.
Kairos questions: just at the right moment.
What are the big questions?
They represent complex issues.
They are more distant from the future or past.
They address human issues.
How can you develop your questioning skills?
How might you enable others to ask questions?
How might others enable you to ask questions?
Practice asking big questions. Think about complex, future human issues?
Use questions in teaching. Ask questions and enable others to ask questions.
Use questions in meetings. Create question based agenda.
Examples
Who, What, why and how
Who is the user?
What is it?
Why? What is the cause (past)? What is the purpose(future)? Think benefits, and risks.
How? What practice uses are there? Think Scenarios
Stand-up Questions
What did I work on yesterday?
What am I working on today?
What issues are blocking me?
PICO question
EBM uses the PICO format to frame a searchable question.
Open-ended questions: are they really beneficial for gathering medical information from patients?
Yousuke Takemura 1, Yutaka Sakurai, Shoji Yokoya, Junji Otaki, Takeshi Matsuoka, Nobutaro Ban, Ichiro Hirata, Tetsuro Miki, Tsukasa Tsuda
Affiliations expand
PMID: 15888971
DOI: 10.1620/tjem.206.151
This study assessed Japanese medical students. 'The use of open-ended questions was positively related to the amount of information elicited from the patients (F = 41.0, p < 0.0001). This study provides data to support the hypothesis regarding the favorable relationship between the use of the open-ended questions and the amount of information from the patients.'
Case study: how do you know when to move from open to closed questions
During a tutorial on abdominal pain, we explored differential diagnosis. I asked the students if there was anything that they were uncertain about. One of the students asked this great question
'how do you know when to move from an open questioning style to a closed one'
I was unable to answer this at this moment. I asked the other students and junior doctors what thoughts and wisdom they had on this issue. Some of the responses were interesting.
'Once you have the working diagnosis you can use closed questions to rule out red flags'
'I am not aware of how this happens'
Children ask the questions we’re embarrassed to, because they’re not worried about looking dumb. And, well, the world still seems pretty strange and new to them.
The child mindset (or the beginners mindset) can help you to remain curious.
What is it like to be a dog,” “What’s the biggest number in the world,” “Why are people bad” or “Why can’t I just do what I want?”
see On curiosity
Related ideas
They help you to stop and think.
Questions help you to be curious and explore.