Holding questions
My friend Adam Yukelson wrote and asked me about how I hold questions instead of goals:
I was speaking with Gabe Donnelly last night and she was sharing a conversation the two of you had last year in which you said you don’t set goals, but rather, live in a question or questions. We were both drawn to this idea, and curious how it works for you. Do these questions tend to be broad and existential? Short-term and specific? Both? Neither? Are there subsets of questions? How do you know when a new question has emerged? I’d love to hear a little more….
They tend to be both…for a while now I’ve been carying these questions with me…they are varied and they take different forms and they even come and go, but they lead me into fascinating places: Sometimes they appear as research projects, other times they are direct and specific, and sometimes they float, nebulous and seem to inform everything I do.
- What is the role of community in organizations?
- What are the essential practices of hosting that can be taught?
- How do we build relational fields between people?
- What are the ways I can express myself in song?
- How can I use body practice more in my work and life?
- What can my daughter and I do to co-create a shared learning journey?
The community question seems to be the most broad and pervasive in my work right now and I’ve held that for over a year. It helps me to see things the same way, for example, as when you buy a new car and then notice that everyone else seems to be driving the same car as you. The second and third questions relate to learning new ways to teach and communicate what people want to learn from me about hosting. The last three questions are about my life and practice as an artist and a father. I don’t have these questions written down anywhere, I just sort of hold them lightly and they focus my attention.
What are the questions you hold?
It seems there is method in my madness. I’ve been doing this rather unconsciously the last couple months as I’ve been working to make sense of the way emerging technologies affect education and–as you have–to make something out of open government on Bowen. At least in terms of these big picture things the process has been much more rewarding than my old habit of setting goals–invariably I had to revise things once I reached them because to reach the goal I had assumed certain conditions which were not always there. I’ll keep my questions up front from now on.
Chris….Excellent question/article. I”™m growing more and more fond of the idea that the question is at least as (if not more) important than the answer! As a mediator / online collaboration consultant, and I think connected to your question re: “relational fields…”, here”™s a couple of questions that I seem to be holding up these days:
1. What”™s the ”˜most important thing”™ I’m trying to say on this issue/topic?
2. How might going with this ‘x’ approach strengthen the relationship?
cheers, Ben