What else?

The question “What else?” is such a short and simple question which packs in it a great generative potential. In this episode You’ll see just how powerful it can be. In fact, it is one of the most effective tools I know to directly access our deeper thoughts and creative ideas. Asking it multiple times allows us to go well beyond the most obvious thinking.  I hope that after listening to this episode, you fall in love with this powerful question as much as I have! 

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the twelfth episode of the powerful questions podcast. My name is David Shaked. In this episode of the podcast, I’m going to introduce you to the simplest, most powerful question I know of!  The question we’ll explore today is “What else?”

In this podcast, I don’t just focus on any powerful question but rather on the powerful questions that are also generative.  The word ‘generative’ is an adjective describing something that has the ability to originate, to produce or to enhance something. “What else?” is a surprisingly generative question!

If I can offer you a metaphor to represent this question and how I use it, it would be a very powerful yet gentle trowel. By that I mean the kind of tool the gardeners amongst you would use to dig out  some earth around a plant to uncover its roots or, if you were an archaeologist, the kind of tool you might use to delicately remove the surface earth and uncover a beautiful ancient mosaic. 

The first time I was introduced to this question was through Solution Focus coaching – that simple yet powerful approach to coaching I’ve mentioned before in this podcast.  Each time someone posed this question to me, it helped me gain fresh insights into a question or a specific challenge I was struggling with. It has also enabled me to support many other people with their challenges.

Time and time again I've been surprised and delighted to witness the power of this question.  It always helps me and those I coach to elicit new thinking and fresh ideas out of the deep well of our consciousness – or even our subconscious. Just when I start believing that I, or someone I am coaching, has fully shared everything there is to be said about the given topic or situation we’d like to focus on, the simple introduction of "what else?" into the conversation always surprises me! Once again, I get to witness how it takes the thinking and creativity a step further. 

“What else?” is a very versatile Question! It can be introduced as a follow on to so many other questions! When you take a look at all the previous powerful Questions I covered, you can probably see how "what else?" can be used with practically each and every one. To give you just a few examples, how about: 

"What else brought you here?", 

"What else is important to you?", or 

"What else is possible?" 

In fact, if you go back now and listen again carefully, you will notice how often I have already snuck it into the previous episodes of this podcast. 

So yes, I admit, it is not a question you can pose on its own, but it is the best follow-up question I know of. I consider this question so powerful that, for me, it merits its own episode and specific focus.

Let’s take a look at what makes this question so powerful.  Often, when we are asked, or when we encounter, any given question, the first response that comes to mind is from the most immediately available thinking our brain can produce.  That first answer is only a starting point to the complete answer. It is merely a clue your brain brings up as a possibility or a reaction to the question that was posed. Sometimes, it is what your brain determines as the answer that is expected by the person asking the question.  Quite often, that first answer is the most obvious answer to you – it is a thought you have already had in mind or is related to something you may have considered before. It is probably not the best or the only answer to that question.

Once I have listened to your first response, if I choose to follow up with “What else?” I am giving you a chance to go deeper or wider, as the case may be. 

Let’s try this together!

Think about a pleasant moment you have experienced recently… anything you consider to be pleasant would be just fine… 

When you have a mental image of such a moment, write it down.

What made that moment you chose pleasant for you? 

Write your answer right below the first response

What else made that moment pleasant? 

And what else? 

And one more time – what else made it pleasant? 

How did you find this simple example? How many thoughts or ideas came to your mind when I asked you what made that moment pleasant – & what else? How does the first answer compare to the other answers you came up with?

You see in this, a simple example that focused on a small experience, I only asked “what else?” three times.  It is likely that if I carried on asking, you would have come up with more answers.  Quite often, I can ask “what else?” ten or even twenty times, one after another, and you will come up with fresh answers or ideas each time.  What is important is that I leave you plenty of time to allow thinking to evolve and responses to formulate. 

What I love about this question is that it gives an opportunity to sort out the mess in our heads by allowing ideas to pop out separately, one by one. Compare that to how often our questions, thoughts and ideas get entangled in our heads. Basically, it helps navigate the space in between the known and the unknown in our heads. It’s always an opportunity to dig deeper and go beyond the surface, which is the most obvious, expected and already known thoughts or ideas, into the unknown or unexpected.

Posing this question introduces an invitation or a curiosity into the conversation, and that makes our brains work just a little bit harder to produce a new thought, a fresh idea, or a surprising response. It creates a generative level of pressure or challenge, but it doesn’t go too far with it. By that I mean, it doesn’t create unbearable pressure to come up with an answer.  When you pose the question “What else?” with some quiet time to respond to it, you create a healthy, generative space which is a real gift we can give to another person. What is absolutely important is to allow the time and space for an answer to surface so that you don’t create too much pressure or come across as being impatient. Go at it at a slow pace and remember that you can always add “and what else?” multiple times after the first “what else?” question.

Sometimes, when I pose this question repeatedly, I get some resistance. The person I am working with might protest about my repeated use of the question. In that case, I simply explain that it is a particularly powerful question that is worth repeating as it often generates new ideas... this reaction happens very rarely. Most of the time, the other person will surprise themselves with the evolution of their own responses. 

When you use this question, consider also the tone in which it is posed.  It won’t do you or the other person any good if you bark out the question at them in a demanding tone “WHAT ELSE?”  You’ll get a lot further by using a warmer, more inviting and genuinely curious tone, like “what else?” 

It is also important to hold this question lightly. By that, I mean being ready whether the question elicits a new response or not. If the person responding can’t think of anything, let it drop rather than continuing to insist on getting an answer.  If the person you are coaching with this question says, "nothing else!" just accept it.  Actually, it is often a sign that they have done enough thinking for that moment, but their mind will probably continue to engage with the question for a while. So, there is still a good chance that more ideas will arrive, but later – I've had many cases when people called me excitedly after our conversation to report that they have come up with another or even a few more exciting ideas after our conversation! The most powerful and generative questions continue to engage us long after they were first introduced!

And to add even more exciting possibilities, this question can have other permutations which can be used in different contexts or questions as you see fit. For example:

Who else? 

How else? 

Where else? 

and so on. 

Each one of these questions has its own power to take our thinking and clarity further, although I find that “what else?” trumps all of them because it is more encompassing as a question.

I bet that when I started this episode and mentioned I would be focusing on the question “What else?” you probably didn’t think there would be much to say about it, but let me share a secret with you … I was using this particular question on myself as I was thinking and preparing my notes for this episode. I started by asking myself “What do I want to say about this powerful question?” and then continued by asking myself, “What else do I want to say?” And “What else?” and so on. And when I got stuck, I changed the question very slightly to “What is important for my listeners to know about this powerful question?” and continued with “What else?”. You see, this question can be very helpful for self-reflection as well, although, personally, I find that it is most powerful when posed by someone else – a coach or someone who is supporting you as a thinking partner.

I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode and that you’ve learnt something new. I wonder who can benefit from you asking them this question?  Who else could benefit?  And what else?