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The Power of Questions

November 15, 2018 by Bob Kelly

Consultant, author, speaker and long-time friend Bobb Biehl has been asking questions for more than 40 years. In 1976, he founded Masterplanning Group International, and has consulted with thousands of leaders in businesses, churches, nonprofit groups and government agencies.

Bobb is a firm believer in the power of questions. “No problem is the world,” he says, “has ever been solved without a question or series of questions being asked first. Learning to ask is a prerequisite to learning to think clearly. If you’re not able to ask questions, you’ll ultimately make cloudy distinctions, reach uncertain decisions, and take wrong actions.”

In The Question Book, published in 1993, Bobb called on 90 experts to each submit 20 questions covering virtually every aspect of life, including business, education, health, marriage and family, politics, religion and finances.

“We simply cannot make clear distinctions without the use of questions, “he says. “No distinctions! No decisions! No actions! No wonder questions are such a powerful force. Without questions, we would not – could not – take any action!”

If you have a question for Bobb, check out his website: www.bobbbiehl.com.

Bobb has had a major impact on my life. In 1979, my senior level position had been unexpectedly eliminated, and I had no idea what to do next. I knew Bobb slightly, and visited with him one afternoon. He began asking me a few insightful questions about things I’d never even considered. As a result, I set off on an entirely new career path which continues to this day.

I have even more reason to be grateful to Bobb. In the early 1980s, he asked if I could provide him with a few third-party quotations underscoring the key topics covered in his workshops. That was the start of a collection which now numbers more than 585 published volumes, containing about two million selections, covering virtually all of recorded history.

The Quote Corner
(Questions)

A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted.
John Anthony Ciardi

I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.
Arthur C. Clarke

I try to remember two things: First, if you don’t ask, you don’t find out; and second, the questions don’t do the damage. Only the answers do.
Sam Donaldson

The smart ones ask when they don’t know. And, sometimes, when they do.
Malcolm Forbes

Advances are made by answering questions. Discoveries are made by questioning answers.
Bernhard Haisch

I keep six honest serving men,
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
Rudyard Kipling

Nothing shapes our journey through life so much as the questions we ask.
Gregg Levoy

Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.
Og Mandino

It’s a healthy idea to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
Bertrand Russell

There are no foolish questions, and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.
Charles P. Steinmetz

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