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Why don't we ask more questions? Or maybe you do, but I should ask more questions. Recently I encountered a problem I couldn't solved. So I reached out to colleagues to understand if they had answers. They didn't. Then I thought: should I post my question on Yammer or Twitter ? Yammer could work but I had basically already asked the relevant experts within the company so I thought that would be a waste of time. Then Twitter maybe? To be honest, I find the engagement on Twitter pretty low. When I started using Twitter asking a question could get you lots of answers. Now Twitter is more of an update platform and less of a question platform. At least that's how I see myself and others using it. Well, then I thought I'd post my question on Quora . Good 'old' Quora. I've always loved Quora. A very focused and smart platform with lots of people just waiting to answer your question. And Quora suggests potentially relevant people from your network and ...

We need more people that reach out to others. As people are social beings, you would expect 'reaching out' would come naturally. The strange thing is about the time we are living in, is that we learn (again) that this doesn't come naturally. Just look at the state of politics in this world, especially the uprising of the populist movement. And the web, deliberately made as a platform for connections and building bridges, shows this as well. We've all heard of being 'alone together' on the web and the 'filter bubbles' we all like to live in. The web often looks like more of a shouting-at-each-other platform, than a platform for connecting and networking. I see this inside organizations as well. I've worked for quite some organizations and one thing that strikes me is how small the number of connectors is in organizations. People that bridge gaps between individuals, teams, department, business units, office locations and the outside world. The int...

I used to work for a large organization. One of the things that intrigued me most when working for that company is how little questions were asked. It seems like everybody was looking for ways to create a need and get people to ask them a question. The strange thing about looking for needs and questions is that I look for the ones that I can answer. In my work as a consultant I experience the complete opposite. Working for an organization always starts with a need, a question. Often I have to help the organization articulate the need and detail the question, but the need and question is there. As a consultant the big question is: do I or the organization I work for have what it takes to address the need and answer the question. To me this is a huge difference. Does this relate to your experience as a consultant or employee working for an organization?

I enjoy reading Seth Godin ’s daily posts. I share them via Twitter regularly. Recently Godin posted a short one about importance of asking why . I agree, we should ask 'why' more often. It’s an essential question. Easy to ask and hard at the same time. It’s a great way to find out: what the other thinks, what their underlying convictions  are, whether someone really means what he/she is saying, etc. However, can asking 'why' also be wrong? I’ve been in an environment where lots of people asked 'why' all the time. But not for the better… Asking 'why' was a way to kill innovation and slow down the organization. It was used to make sure new ideas were not shared openly and conforming with the status quo was norm. 'Why' was used so that the questioner didn’t have to think about the idea he/she was confronted with before asking 'why'. To me someone can ask me 'why' and I just know it’ll start a great convers...

A sk not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. Yep, Kennedy . I heard this inspiring quote a couple of days ago while watching an interesting documentary about Ronald Reagan . It struck me how much this quote relates to social media. Social media is not about waiting for others to come to you, but you going to them by serving them. Social media is not about taking, but giving. Social media is not about shouting, but listening first. It's about asking, not stating. Etc. Although humans are deeply social, I do think we have to reminded regularly that this is true. And live up to that fact. At least this quote helped me remember.

Of course you've heard of Quora . Lots of posts have been written about Quora.  I've been using it for some time now . I'm not a heavy user; I dip into it every now and then. I think it's interesting. It taps into the power of asking questions . I am surprised though that Quora took off so quickly. Is the world really waiting for a new and separate platform specifically designed to ask and answer questions? For now it seems the world is. For the long-term I don't think Quora will stay around in this form. As I tweeted I think Quora will be acquired by and integrated into Twitter (like in Yammer ). Or Twitter will add Questions functionality (like Yammer). Why? Because knowledge workers are extremely efficient. They don't want to have the tools spread out everywhere and have to look into all those tools one by one. Furthermore, we could already ask each other questions on Twitter. Tweeps would just mark these tweets with a hashtag like #question, #justasking o...

Recently John Tropea wrote another great post "It's not about knowledge sharing, it's about engagement and context" . In his post he pointed to an older article from KMReview (2004) by Nancy Dixon, "Does Your Organization Have an Asking Problem?" . It's an interesting read (although I find the approach a bit too structured...). Anywhere, in her post I found some great quotes I'd like to share with you. They don't only apply to organizations, but to you and me as well. Here goes! Knowledge sharing begins with a request, not with a solution. (...) Managers sometimes tell me that people in their organization have a problem with sharing knowledge; but more often than not, people aren't "asking." The organization has an asking problem, not a sharing problem. When people ask, the sharing problem becomes moot. How organizations talk about "asking" is critical. When company officials say to professionals, "Don...