Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

One basic way to think through to the end is to ask the next question.

“And then what happens,” a four-year-old child’s question that is asked repeatedly.

Yes, some four-year-old children have endless curiosity. That is wonderful. That is learning. Let it flourish.

Adults? Sometimes we just want the meeting to end so we can go piddle with something else. We have questions, but, hey, if no one else is asking the question, everyone else must know everything else, and let’s go.

Sorry. If the question is in my mind, I cannot assume it is in anyone else’s. I should ask. Then I should ask the next question, and the next, and the next until we reach the end. At that point, we have thought it through to the end.

Why? Because is we can think of a way to reach the end, perhaps we can reach the end. There are times when we just cannot think all the way through. That is life, but let’s try. Thinking and talking in a room full of people is expensive. Projects that fail a year later are much more expensive.

Think. Ask the next question. Learn.