Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Like the TV game show Jeopardy, lets make suggestions in the form of a question.

The TV show Jeopardy always had the answer in the form of a question. This always seemed silly to me, but the show was and still is successful, so what do I know about TV game show design?

Perhaps there is something to asking questions. The question’s meta message is, I don’t know everything. What do you think about this? Please help me here.

Instead of making suggestions for the new guy, how about asking a question?

Instead of: Those people should submit their materials five working days before the meeting.

Try: How far in advance of meetings do those people submit their materials? Ten days? Seven days? Five days? What is the purpose of submitting materials early? How can we improve this?

Instead of: Tell them specifically what we want.

Try: How do we inform them specifically what we want? Email, chat, phone? What is the purpose? How can we do this better?

Instead of: Try what I have just suggested in this blog post.

Try: What do you think of this idea of suggestions in the form of questions? How might we improve this and other communications?