Recommended Preface to "McKinsey's Precision Questioning Technique": Do you like to ask questions?

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With the arrival of the new year, I often look back on my career recently. He started out as a product manager in a search engine company and portal website in the early days, and later entered the media circle as a magazine editor. Later, he moved to the consulting and training field, serving as a corporate consultant and professional lecturer. In the blink of an eye, several years have passed by.

Over the years, I have often asked the following three questions to students in different corporate internal trainings or public courses:

① Do you like asking questions?

② Are you curious about everything in the world?

③ Do you know how to break the deadlock by asking questions and get information or help?

From everyone’s eyes that sometimes avoided and sometimes flickered, it was not difficult for me to know the fact that we Taiwanese don’t seem to be used to asking questions in public, and we don’t even know how to ask questions. However, I want to tell everyone that asking questions is really important. Not only can you get information and clues, but you can also effectively solve problems.

American CNN senior reporter Frank. Frank Sesno (Frank Sesno) is a sharp-edged reporter and anchor. He is well-known in the media circle. He once reviewed the past interview years in the book “The Power of Accurate Questions”…

He found that successful people in various fields often use questions to complete various difficult tasks. Simply put, Frank. Sesno regards questioning as an ability that professionals must have. If people can ask questions from multiple perspectives, they will have more macro ideas and get more creative solutions.

Asking questions is indeed a powerful tool. Not only can it help us sort out our thoughts and actions, find solutions to problems, generate wonderful ideas and creativity, but it can also achieve the purpose of communicating and mastering information.

─Only by focusing your thinking in the right direction and getting close to the true nature of the problem can you achieve the goal of grasping the overall situation through asking questions.

Just like I often remind many students in Copywriting Class, [Business Writing](https://www.conte nthacker.today/2018/12/how-to-improve-your-business-writing.html) Unlike writing essays when you were a student, don’t start writing as soon as you get a task or plan assigned by your supervisor or client. What you write will not be deeply rooted in people’s hearts, and it will be harder to gain resonance. There may be no template or standard answer for communication itself, but a better approach is to think calmly first and consider what is the purpose of writing this article and making this briefing? Who are the readers (target audience)? What do they care about or like? What do you hate or fear?

I find that many Chinese people seem to be unable to understand the importance of asking questions. To be more precise, perhaps they don’t know how to ask questions effectively? I really hope to publicize the subtlety of questioning through my own written discussions or courses, but in recent years I have been constantly looking for books that can support or serve as reference.

Until recently, I was lucky enough to read the masterpiece “McKinsey Precise Questioning Techniques” (https://goo.gl/RFVLL4) by former McKinsey consultant [Oshima Yoshihiro] (https://www.facebook.com/sachiyo.oshima). I found that she not only briefly and concisely summarized the benefits of asking questions, but also more specifically outlined the course of action for asking questions, which is worthy of reference.

[Oshima Yoshihiro] (https://twitter.com/sachiyooshima), who is currently the chairman of [Senju Human Design Works Company] (http://www.senju-co.jp/), has made it his mission to make bosses and managers “excellent leaders.” In her book “McKinsey’s Precision Questioning Technique” (https://goo.gl/RFVLL4), she put forward many wonderful ideas, and they are all executable action plans.

For example, she mentioned four directions for good questions, including:

① Ask questions about the root of the problem → get to the core of the problem

② “Looking to the future” questions → Close to “what it should be”

③ Break the frame → Expand possibilities with “Actually…?”

④ elicit “truthful words” → drive the other party

There is no doubt that asking questions is important, but being able to ask good questions is even more critical. If we can proceed step by step according to these four directions, I believe we will be able to break through the limitations of thinking and discover the essence of the problem.

Consultant Oshima Shoyu also said that asking questions is her way to help clients solve problems. She always likes to ask:

① “Is that really important?”

② “Why do you think it is important?”

③ “If we take this matter seriously, what will be the consequences?”

Through this kind of pressing questioning, you can not only get to the core, but also clarify what you want to do and the direction you should go in. The author also reminds everyone that asking questions is different from writing. It does not need to focus on succession, but must be brief and powerful, and must have in-depth insights into various people and things in order to get close to the essence of the problem.

In addition, the author also pays special attention to exploring the root of the problem, which is the spirit of pursuing “Where”. She believes that asking questions can explore motivations and the truth behind things, which is more important than “How” and “Why”!

The famous Japanese management scientist and economic commentator [Kenichi Ohmae] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E5%A4%A7%E5%89%8D%E7%A0%94%E4%B8%80), who also worked at McKinsey, said: “For life and work, the power of questioning is the most powerful weapon.” I believe that after reading the above introduction, it should have stimulated your interest in asking questions!

Well, do you want to have the same powerful questioning skills that the author of this book is proud of? My suggestion is to first read the good book “McKinsey Precision Questioning Technique” (https://goo.gl/RFVLL4), and then start practicing asking questions from familiar things in front of you or around you in life!

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Further reading

• “Compound Interest Thinking: Make Small Changes Become Big Changes, Use Compound Interest to Improve the Long-term Effect of Life Profits” Recommended Preface: Wake up every day and be smarter than yesterday
• [“Thoughts and Challenges of Starting a One-Man Company” Recommended Preface: “Thoughts and Challenges of Starting a One-Man Company”] (/blog/thoughts-and-challenges-of-starting-a)
• [“Focus on the 20% high-density work: Learn to “pick work to do” and get the maximum results in the least time” Recommended sequence: Say goodbye to perfectionism and become a high-density worker] (/blog/focus-on-the-20-high-density-work)

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