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Inspired by the EXIT the Game quiz

I was walking my daughter to school earlier this month (which is a blessing by itself after 2 month of home schooling) and we talked about the game we played recently. We became positively addicted to EXIT the Game quiz, which is played in the home environment. The topic of our conversation was game difficulties and how we coped with them.

Apparently we found ourselves not really matching the typical player’s profiles, as more difficult riddles were easier to solve for us then the easy ones. We often found it difficult to understand what the riddle is about, and once we did, we usually were spot on finding the right answer. That got me thinking about the importance of asking or formulating the question in the right way, if you expect the audience to quickly solve it.

The other relevant aspect, which I often come across, is cultural differences. We start our problem solving careers in schools, which are delivering information pupils in a way, which has been developed over the years in the countries we go to school. Having the privilege and opportunity to raise two kids in completely different schooling systems (Russia and UK) I am observing such things on a daily basis. As we grow and start our career we may end up working for a global international company, which in turn has its own way of asking questions and providing relevant information.

So how can we cope with it in our global roles, how can we make we communicate questions and tasks in the most efficient and transparent way? I distinguish two different approaches, let’s call them “western” and “eastern” for the moment. I must admit that I do not have much of experience in APAC region, so for the purpose of this discussion “east” means east of Europe. Also by no means I am referring here to any official classification and talking about juxtaposition of different education or any other systems.

I use the term “eastern” to describe a question, which is direct and often expects a single correct answer. By the way of example this is how I was taught in school and how my performance was measured. Every questions had to have an answer, so I was focused on finding it. An unanswered question meant failure.

On the contrary the “western” type of questions are much broader. They allow multiple variations of answers, all being sort of correct. There could be no answer at all, the audience is just being pulled for ideas or opinions. These types of questions also foster creativity. I personally had a lot of issues with those types of questions when I started to encounter them during my MBA study, which was UK based.

I found it important to know what type of question I am asked and what type of answer is expected. So in my personal practice I am trying to make sure people I communicate with have this information as well. Not everyone desperately needs it, but it is better when it is available. Communicating the question type could be done by indicating the variety of answers, by encouraging the audience to give you multiple or single guesses, and by simply saying upfront what are you expecting as a response.

So next time you are asking a question to your international colleagues think about not only what answer are you looking for, but also what question are they expecting.