Encyclopedia of Leadership

6.4

DEALINGVERBALLY WITH COMPLEXITY

Inspired by the thousands of participants in the Consulting Skills for Professionalsworkshops.

A challenging leadership situation is when someone approaches you with a mess. Often, these

messy problem statements contain implied general, but ineffective, solutions: “The mainte-

nance problem occurred again last night” or, “We’ve got the systems snafu again” or,

“Absenteeism is up again. I told you we needed to send our supervisors to a leadership work-

shop!” Your chief verbal tool in dealing with such complexity is questioning, even though

most people don’t think much about types of questions or their implications. This tool will

provide an on-the-spot, effective questioning strategy. The model presented illustrates the use

of three levels of questions. Actual sample questions and a questioning sequence are outlined

later in this tool.

THE HOURGLASS MODEL FOR SORTING OUT A COMPLE XSITUATION

SECTION 6 TOOLS FORCRITICALTHINKING ANDINNOVATION 179

Triageis the medical term for sorting

out priorities when multiple casualties

come into a medical facility. Triage

questions do notfix the underlying

problems. They alleviate the

immediate symptoms, establishing "In

what order do we treat the casualties?"

or "What needs attention first?" They

are the classic Band-Aidquestions.

Big-picture or open-ended questions:

• Help everyone step back and look
  at the overall situation.


• Help get at underlying causes, sys-
  temic issues, and longer-term
  needs.
  Many leaders find it difficult to ask
  big-picture questions, because
  a. They are afraid of the answers! Big-
  picture questions may make the
  problem look worse and move you
  outside your comfort zone.
  b. It may feel better to have a poor
  solution than none at all!
  Once you have the big picture sorted
  out, you are in a most strategic place
  for a leader. You and others can now
  decide on priorities and plans to
  ensure that the problem does not
  recur.
  
  
  • Fixing the immediate hurts. (See
    the Danger!—caveat section.)
  
  
  • Putting on Band-Aids.
  
  
  • Finding quick fixes.
  
  
  • Buying time.
  
  
  • Not dealing with underlying issues
    and causes.
  
  
  • Relieving immediate pressure
    before being able to look at the big
    picture.
  
  
  • Establishing rapport by helping the
    person talk it out.
  
  
  • Asking open-ended questions to
    broaden and get at the context of
    the problem.
  
  
  • Getting at the underlying issues.
  
  
  • Getting at the context, causes, and
    related systemic issues.
  
  
  • Setting yourself and the others up
    to deal with the longer-term
    solutions.
  
  
  • Narrowing the scope of the
    problem by jointly establishing
    priorities and action plans.
  
  
  • Clarifying responsibilities and next
    steps.
  
  
  
  



Triage

Questions

Big-Picture

Questions



Closing

Questions

Type of

question Mental model Why these questions? What you are doing?

Complex

situation

Immediate needs

dealt with

Longer-term issues

dealt with