Best of IdeaCast: To Build Stronger Teams, Ask Better Questions

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Asking questions is a powerful way to build trust, exchange ideas, and unlock value in organizations. And it is a skill that can be honed to make work conversations more productive, say Leslie K. John and Alison Wood Brooks, professors at Harvard Business School. In this classic episode, they join former host Sarah Green Carmichael to talk through insights from behavioral science research. They share techniques to adjust the frame, tone, and type of questions to improve results—whether you’re looking to get information, find solutions, or just get someone to like you. Brooks and John wrote the article “The Surprising Power of Questions” in the May–June 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Got 30 minutes? Join Capital Group CEO Mike Gitlin for a new monthly edition of the Capital Ideas podcast, brought to you by Capital Group, home of American Funds Distributors, Inc. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
0:17.7	Hey listeners, my fabulous colleagues Amy Bernstein and Amy Gallo are back with a new season of women at work.
0:25.8	You know, it's your guide to whatever you're facing at work from anxiety to Gen A.I.
0:31.4	Listen to new episodes of Women at Work every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review.
0:58.9	I'm Kurt Nickish.
1:05.9	Over my career as a journalist, I've experienced how questions lead to insights and stronger connections
1:12.6	between people. Sometimes it's getting someone to say clearly what has to be said. Other times, it's an
1:19.9	avenue to emotional truth or empathy. A question can be strategic or asked out of idle curiosity.
1:27.9	Either way, questions have the power to change your understanding of the world.
1:32.9	And on this show, you've heard evidence of that over and over in conversations.
1:37.7	Guests telling how a simple question gave them their idea for a billion-dollar company.
1:42.8	Sharing how asking a critical question at a critical
1:45.6	time was the key to a breakthrough or staying competitive.
1:50.6	We've heard how questions can unlock value in organizations and among teams. Still, the art and
1:57.1	science of asking questions are a neglected pursuit for a lot of people. So for this episode,
2:03.1	we're bringing back a great conversation from 2018 with Harvard Business School professors
2:07.7	Alison Woodbrooks and Leslie John. They wrote the HBR magazine article, The Surprising Power
2:13.9	of Questions, and spoke to Idea cast host Sarah Green Carmichael about it.
2:18.9	I hope you enjoy it and that without question, it does you some good in 2025.
2:28.2	So let's just start by talking about what's the benefit to asking good questions in business.
2:39.0	Actually, the better question might be what isn't the benefit of asking questions in business because the benefits are so abundant?
2:42.0	Let me start simply by saying that most people do not ask enough questions,
	...

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