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A Lean Six Sigma Black Belt will often need to coach Green Belts, Yellow Belts, and other team members. Through the effective use of questions, the Black Belt can both gain information for themselves and provide training in quality thinking and the improvement methodology. Different questioning techniques are appropriate for different team circumstances. This lesson will review the techniques and when to apply them.

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Quick reference

Coaching with Questions

A Lean Six Sigma Black Belt will often have the responsibility to coach Green Belts leading other teams in addition to Yellow Belts and subject matter experts on Lean Six Sigma teams. One very effective way to coach these individuals is through questioning techniques

When to use

Use questioning techniques to build rapport, to improve the other individuals' understanding of the inquiry process, to improve the other individuals' decision-making, and to provide clarity and insight about the situation.

Instructions

These coaching sessions are between the black belt and members of the project team, stakeholders, or process subject matter experts.  They can be held virtually or face-to-face.

Information meetings

Coaching through questioning is referred to as the Socratic method of teaching. Asking questions engages the other person in a dialogue and discovery process. This can enhance learning and understanding. In addition, asking questions can build rapport as you show interest in the opinions and conclusions of the other person.  The interactions can increase knowledge and understanding, they can also guide a thought process, challenge paradigms, and even help to defuse heated situations by changing the focus to an area with less controversy.

Open, closed, and funnel questions

One method of categorizing questions is to classify them as open or closed. Open questions start a discussion. They require an explanation. Closed questions require unambiguous one or two-word answers. They are more likely to end a discussion than start one, but at least they engage the person. These can be combined into a funnel approach to develop a dialogue when someone is disengaged or so confused they don’t know what to do. Start the funnel with several easy closed questions to get the person responding. Lead them to more open questions based on the answers from the closed questions. Eventually, you can get to fully open questions and a good discussion.

Probing questions

Probing questions are exactly that. They probe to find more information about the situation. We often think of them as the “W” questions: What? When? Where? Who? Why? and How? Use these to gain better information about a situation and to help the person you are coaching to see all aspects of the situation. Be careful not to ask these in an accusatorial manner, rather ask them with sincere inquisitiveness.

Leading questions

Leading questions are those that indicate the correct answer in the way the question is asked. They are often viewed as manipulative because they are. However, that is not an issue for coaching where you are trying to steer the person into discovering the best approach or making a good decision. They can be an excellent teaching technique for showing the thought process that should be followed. These will normally take on one of these forms:

  • Embedded assumption – “How late will the project be this time?”
  • Personal appeal – “Option 1 is the best, don’t you agree?”
  • Easier to say YES – “Is everyone ready for a break?”           
  • Limiting the choice to options that you approve – “Would you prefer a Dell computer or a Lenovo?”

Hints & tips

  • Questioning will often take longer than just telling someone what to do. However, people often learn better if they discover the answer themselves and it is easier to build rapport in the question-and-answer dialogue process than in a lecture mode.
  • When someone is confused or uncertain, use the funnel to lead them to the correct answer.
  • When someone has jumped to a wrong conclusion (or even a correct conclusion if it was a “jump”) use probing questions to ensure they see all aspects of the situation before making a final decision.
  • Leading questions are an excellent way to show people how to think about a problem or situation.
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  • 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 Let's discuss how you, as a Black Belt, can coach your team or
  • 00:10 other Green Belts leading teams using questions.
  • 00:14 Questioning with the purpose is a technique or coaching method known as
  • 00:18 the Socratic method, named after the Greek philosopher who was famous for using it.
  • 00:22 This method of coaching has several strengths.
  • 00:25 One is, that it shows an interest in the other person.
  • 00:28 You as the coach are not always in a directive mode,
  • 00:31 rather you are listening to what they think and listening to their ideas.
  • 00:35 Make sure you convey to them that you are paying attention and
  • 00:38 want to know their answers to the question.
  • 00:40 By listening to understand what they are saying,
  • 00:43 you can judge their thinking process.
  • 00:45 You can determine if they are correctly understanding the topics being discussed
  • 00:49 or if there is a misunderstanding or gap in their knowledge.
  • 00:52 This will help you focus your coaching on the areas that will be the most
  • 00:55 help to them.
  • 00:57 Also with the use of the right questions for the situation,
  • 00:59 you can guide a thought process, and build better understanding and decision making,
  • 01:04 not to mention that you can find out what is going on with the project.
  • 01:08 Questions can serve many purposes, so think about what questions to ask and
  • 01:12 how to use them in a way to help the individual and the team.
  • 01:16 Some of the obvious uses of questions are for learning and clarifying, but they can
  • 01:20 also be used to coach and persuade people by steering a thought process.
  • 01:25 A good questioner will build a relationship with the individual by
  • 01:28 the attention that they show them.
  • 01:30 And I have even found that questions can be used to diffuse a heated situation by
  • 01:34 taking the focus off the point of conflict.
  • 01:36 And instead focusing on the areas of agreement or
  • 01:39 at least a mutual of common understanding.
  • 01:42 Let's look at two types of questions and how to use them within a conversation.
  • 01:46 Open questions are those that require a paragraph to answer,
  • 01:50 they need an explanation.
  • 01:52 These often start with the words like how or why.
  • 01:55 In contrast, closed questions normally require an unambiguous one or
  • 01:59 two word answer.
  • 02:01 They are yes/no questions or statements of fact.
  • 02:04 Open questions will inevitably lead to a dialogue or conversation, but
  • 02:08 closed questions will often end a conversation or
  • 02:11 at least minimize the amount of engagement.
  • 02:14 You can combine these in a funneling approach to engage someone who is not
  • 02:19 participating or appears to be lost and confused.
  • 02:23 In this case, start with several generic closed questions.
  • 02:26 They won't create the discussion, but
  • 02:28 they do create the engagement that draws the person into a discussion.
  • 02:32 Once you've got them to answer a few simple closed questions,
  • 02:35 then you can start to ask more open questions and get a conversation going.
  • 02:39 Let me give you an example, you're working with a Green Belt who is confused and
  • 02:44 doesn't know what to do next.
  • 02:46 Ask the closed question, well, what stage are you in?
  • 02:49 Then the closed question, well, what are the primary outputs or
  • 02:53 goals of that stage?
  • 02:54 Now ask a semi-open question.
  • 02:57 What are the steps we need to go through in order to achieve that goal?
  • 03:01 Finally, you're ready for a fully open question.
  • 03:04 So how much progress have you made on each of those steps and what is next?
  • 03:08 Let's now dig a little deeper into some of these open questions by considering our
  • 03:12 category of probing questions.
  • 03:14 The answers to these provide details and background to a situation or problem.
  • 03:18 They help to place the situation in context.
  • 03:22 We use the 6Ws as ways to categorize these.
  • 03:25 The Ws, what, when, where, who, why, and
  • 03:28 how, will allow us to consider the multiple facets of the situation.
  • 03:33 By the way, I know the W comes at the end of how, not at the beginning, but
  • 03:37 it still counts because the word does have a W.
  • 03:40 These questions can help the person you are coaching to think critically about
  • 03:44 the situation by including the term exactly in front of the question.
  • 03:47 The critical thinking will build understanding and insight.
  • 03:51 These questions will help to understand and clarify the situation.
  • 03:54 But from a coaching perspective,
  • 03:56 the benefit is that they reinforce the inquiry process and helps the individual
  • 04:00 to understand all sides of the problem that they are addressing.
  • 04:04 Let's move on to another category of questions known as leading questions.
  • 04:09 These are typically questions that try to lead the individual to
  • 04:12 a particular desired answer by the way the question is phrased.
  • 04:16 Some people will view these as manipulative questions.
  • 04:19 Of course that's because they are, but we will use them to manipulate those we
  • 04:23 are coaching into a correct groove for working on the project.
  • 04:28 Let's look at some of the forms of these questions.
  • 04:30 First, there is the embedded assumption.
  • 04:33 How late will this project be?
  • 04:34 The assumption is that it will be late.
  • 04:37 We don't even entertain the possibility of completing on time.
  • 04:40 Next, is the personal appeal.
  • 04:42 Option one is best, don't you agree?
  • 04:44 Well, no one wants to be disagreeable.
  • 04:47 So they go along even though they may not have even given it any thought.
  • 04:50 Third, is making it so easy to say yes, that they just roll right along with you.
  • 04:56 For instance, asking the question, well, is everyone ready for a break now?
  • 05:00 Who would say no to that and bring the wrath of everyone else down upon them.
  • 05:03 And the last form, is limiting choices to a select few that you will allow.
  • 05:08 Do you want a Dell computer or a Lenovo?
  • 05:11 Well, you're saying, actually I'd rather have an Apple or maybe even just an HP,
  • 05:15 not an option.
  • 05:16 Now notice that these are all closed questions.
  • 05:19 You don't want a discussion,
  • 05:20 you want to move the conversation to a different level or topic.
  • 05:24 That is why this approach is for steering a thought process.
  • 05:27 You are taking someone down a path to get them to the place where you want
  • 05:30 them to be.
  • 05:32 But instead of telling them the answer,
  • 05:33 you want them to discover the answer to build ownership and understanding.
  • 05:37 So, you use leading questions to make sure they get to the right answer.
  • 05:42 Questioning is an excellent method for coaching,
  • 05:45 it builds relationships while teaching a thought process.

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