What is a Provocative Question?

I was recently asked, by one of my mentorees, to help identify what is a provocative question. Here is my take. A provocative question is one that:

• Unveils the key issues that need to be addressed
• Helps expedite the process of reaching a strong conceptual agreement
• Helps establish trust yet is uncomfortable at times for the person to answer
• Stimulates the discussion and forces the person to think hard and dig deep
• Eliminates the junk which but that I mean the superfluous stuff that should be ignored or eliminated
• Positions you as an object of interest and as an expert
• Causes the person to say: “wow, I’ve never thought of it that way” or “that’s a great question!”

Although I recommend you collect such questions and store them in a system for easy retrieval, the ones I find most effective are the ones I come up with in the moment.

So what are you waiting for?