Why Big Questions Matter

“I have a question”

Flourishing teams know the best way to leverage their greatest impact and growth opportunities is framing them as big questions. Big questions are shared interests in compelling future scenarios that teams want to make possible. They are framed in the language of Should we…? and How could we…?

Big questions have two core characteristics: they feel important and it's not clear how to go about answering them. They are more complex than they might seem. They live at the intersection of urgency and uncertainty.

In organizations, big questions could be about optimizing AI, thriving in remote and hybrid work, retaining developed people, being an ethical business, creating a robust product mix, upskilling talent, fixing culture issues, selecting new technology systems, developing leaders at all levels.

In civic spaces, they could be about inaccessible health care, food insecurity, affordable housing, homelessness, social isolation, unemployability, and underperforming schools.

Big questions can be technical, social, economic, and ethical in nature. The more complex questions can only be answered by collaborations among multiple disciplines or sectors. Only simple questions can be answered by single disciplines or sectors.

In contrast, big goals can tend to provoke unproductive arguments about feasibility. A goal is a compelling future scenario representing an unknown scope of questions. Goals framed as big questions evoke engagement and curiosity because they are questions, not reasons for self-doubt.

Answering big questions is all about working from the right process. We don't have to wait for different leaders, more resources, or fewer constraints. We don't need to wait for more predictability or more data to begin. Groups can make progress on their big questions simply with a process that works.

Organizations can have big questions at any point, from startup phases, pivots, sustaining growth, maturity cycles, and identity crises.

Without big questions, organizations stay busy engaging less than their full potential. They hope small questions will somehow lead to big impacts. Small questions do not have this power. Big questions do. Big questions matter because though them, we matter.

Learn more about finding the right process. Or, chat with Jack about your big questions.