Not asking the right questions can waste time and produce frustration. While some people say that there is no such thing as a bad question, I disagree. A question can be bad if someone doesn’t do their homework about the topic they are asking about. This is especially true when the questions are designed to produce important answers on a professional level.
Step back in my time machine back to when I was Executive Director of a professional ballet company. I was told that I had a meeting with a representative of the company that handled our Worker’s Compensation claims. The catch was that this was someone who had never before visited a ballet company.
After a couple of minutes, I realized that he knew nothing about our world. His questions were based on a spreadsheet and not a reality. Consider our conversation:
Q. You seem to have a lot of injury claims?
A. We have 22 dancers. They spend their days jumping, lifting, and spinning. Some injuries are bound to happen. Keep in mind that when a dancer is on Worker’s Comp, he or she is not allowed to dance. These people love to dance, so they don’t want to miss time.
Q. Can they hold back while rehearsing so they don’t hurt themselves so much?
A. It doesn’t work that way. Dancers need to dance. You can’t go half speed.
Q. Could the dancers do some more stretching before they start dancing?
A. They actually spend an hour a day doing warm up exercises. Many of these people have been dancing since they were four years old. They know their bodies well.
Q. Is there a problem in the rehearsal room that causes injuries?
A. The room has a spring loaded floor. It’s like the kind of floor that basketball players play on.
Through all of this, I could sense that the man felt he was close to cracking the injury code. Eventually, he ran out of questions. I felt that he left unsatisfied. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had just wasted an hour of my life.
I never saw the man again or heard further questions about our injury claims.
Sometimes, it pays to do you homework before you ask a question.
