5 Minutes on Leading With Inquiry
Leadership training and development is often based on the idea that we can predict the future.
If we just get enough information, or the right information, and organize it and analyze it, we can find cause and effect.
We separate everything into manageable chunks – individuals, tasks, goals, strategy – and give in to the illusion that we can control the future.
But the world is not made up of separate, manageable pieces. Rather the world is made of energy that flows invisibly across any boundaries or boxes we try to create to makes things more manageable.
And we can’t control or predict the future.
The pandemic points this out to us. It is an extreme example, one we cannot ignore, but it is one of many examples.
Funding sources shift, employees come and go, opportunities arise, political landscapes change, collaborations fall apart.
While planning, goal setting, and strategizing are wonderful tools, sometimes we need more.
When there is uncertainty or chaos, or we find ourselves tackling "wicked problems", as Rittel and Webber described them, those tools can fall short. We need another path.
How do we lead if we know and accept this?
First, as leaders, we take a stance of inquiry. Or as the Human Systems Dynamics Institute so succinctly puts it, we:
Turn judgment into curiosity
Turn assumptions into questions
Turn conflict into shared exploration
Turn defensiveness into self-reflection
We can move into inquiry with our teams, organizations and networks by discovering the questions that recognize and reflect our current reality.
We can ask questions like:
How can we be more deeply inclusive of all of our stakeholders?
What is really at play with our employee turnover?
What if we don't get the funding we have received reliably for years?
What is this conflict or tension telling us about a change that might need to happen?
Practicing inquiry might also involve acknowledging that some problems can’t be solved.
Instead, we can find the question that is most present.
Identify the question, sit with it, pay attention to how the energy of the situation starts to evolve.
What's causing me the most discomfort as I notice the ways white supremacy impacts me, my team and our work?
What will it take to be more agile in our response to a fast-changing environment?
How do we attune to our employee's unique needs and tend to the team as a whole?
Leading in uncertainty can be uncomfortable.
But so can leading with the delusion that you can predict the future, and need to. Imagine letting go of that belief, loosening your grip on those reigns.
What opens to you when you stop trying to control or predict the future and instead step into the practice of inquiry?
If you are feeling inspired to practice inquiry, take a few minutes to jot down whatever ideas are coming to you right now.
How can you make room for inquiry at your next team meeting?
How can you apply inquiry to a wicked problem you are currently facing?
Is there an opportunity for you to model inquiry with your peers or employees?
Where can you change defensiveness into self-reflection, conflict into shared exploration, assumptions into questions, or judgment into curiosity?
This post is inspired by my training as a Human Systems Dynamics professional. You can find many more resources about inquiry and leading in uncertainty at the Human Systems Dynamics Institute.