HBR IdeaCast Are You Asking the Right Questions?
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Apr 16, 2024 
In this engaging discussion, Arnaud Chevallier, a strategy professor at IMD Business School and co-author of an influential article on questioning, shares insights on how leaders can enhance decision-making by asking the right questions. He categorizes questions into five types—investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive, and subjective—to target various strategic challenges. Real-world examples illustrate how these questions can unlock organizational value. Chevallier emphasizes the need for creating safe environments for dialogue and tailoring questions to foster collaboration.
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Investigative and Speculative Questions
- Use investigative questions (what, how) to explore problems and solutions deeply.
- Employ speculative questions (what if) to broaden perspectives and foster innovation.
Productive Questions
- Utilize productive questions (now what) to make decisions about pace and whether to go ahead.
- Evaluate if there are enough resources and information to progress.
Interpretive Questions
- Ask interpretive questions (so what) to transform information into actionable insight.
- These questions bridge different question types, enabling smoother transitions in thinking.