Yale Staff Members Explore the Power of Questions

Young children can ask hundreds of questions a day as they learn about the world around them. For many adults, however, question-asking is no longer a skill practiced daily. On October 28, 2025, Yale staff members gathered for a deep dive into the art of asking questions.

In this interactive workshop open to all staff, participants practiced a technique for formulating questions to enhance problem-solving, decision-making capacity, and leadership abilities. Led by Dan Rothstein and Naomi Campbell of the Right Question Institute, the workshop was co-sponsored by Yale Learn & Grow and Cultivating Conversation, a university-wide initiative to foster constructive dialogue.

In small groups, participants chose one of three scenarios as their “question focus”—a statement, such as “You were given a deadline that’s impossible to meet,” about which one can generate questions. The groups brainstormed as many questions as possible without stopping to judge or discuss.

Then, Rothstein and Campbell guided them through an iterative process that ended with identifying the three most important questions to their topic. Along the way, participants considered the value of closed-ended versus open-ended questions, and they practiced sharpening their questions.

Finally, staff reflected on the process and what they noticed and learned. For many, a key takeaway was that the power of asking questions lies not just in receiving answers, but also in the insights gained through the process of formulating questions.

One participant shared, “It made me think of the power of asking questions, no matter what answers you get. Just to ask the question can be a way to open up new avenues of thought.”

Q&A with the Right Question Institute

Cultivating Conversation sat down with Dan Rothstein and Naomi Campbell of the Right Question Institute for a Q&A while they were on campus.

Why is being able to ask questions an important skill?

NC: Asking questions isn’t just about the answers you’re getting. By producing your own questions, you think through issues in a deeper way. The practice of coming up with questions can give you a new sense of understanding around an issue. We’ve found that in our work in many different fields, when people are asking questions it leads to a new sense of engagement, comprehension, and discovery of ways forward.

DR: Questions are a renewable source of intellectual energy. If you’re feeling stuck or thinking ‘I don’t understand,’ being able to ask questions can give you a pathway to gaining new understanding. Asking questions also creates space for people to become partners with you, which can lead to more productive conversations. Even if you’re in a conversation with somebody with whom you disagree, questions can be a way to learn more about the source of that disagreement.

What do you mean by ‘the power of questions’?

DR: Very often, the people asking questions are in a position of more power, and they are asking questions of people with less power. This can be true even for people who generally are in positions of power in their own fields but are in a different setting—for example, a lawyer in a doctor’s office. And it can be true for people who feel they are without a voice as they deal with systems or institutions. For people in these situations, the ability to ask questions becomes a way to gain more power and to gain a sense that they have a right to speak up and voice their ideas and opinions.

Why should leaders encourage questions from others?

DR: As a leader, you often have the role of asking questions of people to have them respond to what you are thinking about and what you want to know from them. It becomes something very different if, as a leader, you get to hear their questions. There’s a lot of value in committing to hearing questions from people and giving them space and opportunity to formulate their own questions. You may get new information and, in many cases, new insights that you would not have gotten otherwise.

How can any of us get better at facilitating questions from others?

NC: One way people can encourage questions is to facilitate a process in which people are coming up with questions in a generative way and then working with their questions and reflecting on what they’ve learned. At RQI we use a number of techniques that help people facilitate questions from other people. At Yale, we worked with staff and students on the question formulation technique, which is a step-by-step process for helping other people ask their own questions. We heard from them a range of examples of how they could use this in their work, in the classroom, and in many other applications.

What’s one tip you’d give to a person looking to have a hard conversation that they don’t know how to begin?

NC: One thing we tell people is to start with questions. Start by coming up with questions and working with your questions. This can shift your perspective from feeling stuck to feeling like you want to learn something from the conversation. This puts you in a learning mindset, and it can help you when you go into the conversation. People will be responding to your curiosity, and that can make a conversation easier.

DR: When you’ve asked that question, you’ve already started the process. We encourage people to not stop at their initial question. Identify the problem, name it, describe it, define it. And then ask more questions about it—without feeling like you have to have an immediate answer to that first question. How could you unpack that first question? How can you go a little bit further?