Humble Inquiry

“I want you to tell me exactly what you think of me … even if it costs you your job.

“Am I doing this correctly? Tell me if I am doing something wrong.

It is less visible in a team among peers, and it is often totally invisible to the boss who may assume that the formal power granted by the position itself will guarantee the performance of the subordinate.

most important is to ask myself what my motives are before I ask a confrontational question. Am I feeling humble and curious or have I fallen into thinking I have an answer and am just testing out whether or not I am right?

Effective groups review their decisions to see what can be learned. When the army does maneuvers, it does an after-action review in a deliberate attempt to get feedback from everyone regardless of rank. Hospitals hold special meetings to review cases, especially when things go wrong.

and that patients frequently pay the price.

If the tasks that society faces are becoming more complex and interdependent, and if the problem solvers working on these tasks are increasingly of different ranks, statuses, and cultures, the ability to ask in a humble way will become ever more important.

a common finding is that lower-ranking employees had information that would have prevented or lessened the consequences of the accident, but either it was not passed up to higher levels, or it was ignored, or it was overridden.

Our initial biases in what we perceive and feel, how we judge situations, and how we react all reflect our culture and our personal history. We are all different because we have different histories both culturally and personally. And, most importantly, our perceptions of our roles, ranks, and statuses within a given situation predispose us to assum