Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to use polite questions as a way
Speaker 1: to nudge people to reconsider things. Many of us are
Speaker 1: working and doing life differently these days. This is an
Speaker 1: opportunity to challenge long held assumptions. Asking subversive, but polite
Speaker 1: questions is a good way to inch this process along.
Speaker 1: I was thinking of this topic while reading Michelle King's
Speaker 1: new book The Fix, which is about the barriers women
Speaker 1: often face while building their careers. King, who is the
Speaker 1: director of Inclusion at Netflix, mentioned that as her husband
Speaker 1: gained awareness about these issues, he didn't start walking around
Speaker 1: with protest signs at the office. Instead, he started asking
Speaker 1: why things were as they were. For instance, when a
Speaker 1: manager mentioned that a woman on his team probably shouldn't
Speaker 1: get promoted because she was getting married soon, he asked
Speaker 1: why that was. If someone then wants to spell out
Speaker 1: an assumption that newly married women will soon have babies
Speaker 1: and lose all interest in work, well let them spell
Speaker 1: this idea out. A question is not a direct challenge
Speaker 1: to authority, but as people need to explain their assumptions,
Speaker 1: It brings them into the light where they can be
Speaker 1: dealt with. But asking subversive questions isn't just about countering discrimination.
Speaker 1: It's a useful tactic in all kinds of situations. Many
Speaker 1: of us have spent the past six weeks or so
Speaker 1: working remotely. Many folks doing this are in jobs where
Speaker 1: they were previously told that working from home would never
Speaker 1: be an option. Interesting, right, I can just imagine someone
Speaker 1: in the past asking these subverse, of but polite questions. Well,
Speaker 1: of course, working face to face is nice, But have
Speaker 1: we thought about how our organization would keep functioning in
Speaker 1: a pandemic, or if there were three weeks of horrible snowstorms,
Speaker 1: or if all the roads around headquarters were suddenly declared unsafe.
Speaker 1: Those subversive questions would have been quite useful, And so
Speaker 1: we can see that maybe now is the time to
Speaker 1: ask more of them. Maybe when your office went remote,
Speaker 1: your team's daily ten a m. Meeting got converted into
Speaker 1: a conference call. Maybe now you ask your manager, can
Speaker 1: you explain to me the agenda for this conference call?
Speaker 1: Maybe you see that there rarely is one and having
Speaker 1: an agenda would make the call a much better use
Speaker 1: of time. Or maybe this question nudges the realization that
Speaker 1: the meeting is kind of pointless. People can check in
Speaker 1: on Slack and not interrupt the deep work they're doing
Speaker 1: in the mornings. Or maybe you ask, can you tell
Speaker 1: me why it's a important for us to be logged
Speaker 1: in from eight am to five pm. It's a simple question,
Speaker 1: but it might nudge the thought that actually a lot
Speaker 1: of work can be done flexibly. Some core hours might
Speaker 1: be great, but seldom is the full eight to nine
Speaker 1: hour work day necessary. What I like about the question
Speaker 1: approach is that it's gentle. There may be good reasons
Speaker 1: for things, and this gives the powers that be the
Speaker 1: chance to explain them. But when the answer is awkward
Speaker 1: because the person can see that he or she is
Speaker 1: about to say, well, we've just always done it this way,
Speaker 1: or well everyone knows that right, then questions can instigate
Speaker 1: change without preaching and protest. And since we do all
Speaker 1: have to keep working together, it's best to make allies
Speaker 1: rather than enemies. In the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: M Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You
Speaker 1: can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the number four, then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, should I look forward to staying in touch.
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