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107 reviews for:
QBQ! the Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life
John G. Miller
3.39 AVERAGE
107 reviews for:
QBQ! the Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life
John G. Miller
3.39 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
Short and sweet. Simple and easy to put into practice. A tool for personal accountability. Good examples.
This is a must read I think for people in leadership roles but also for the people in any organization there are a lot of quick stories with the same take away. What can I do: to make this work better, to motivate my team, to add value to...etc. It is a mindset that I think everyone needs to try and get into if they are in a leadership role.
I recently left the company I had been working for the last twelve years and the awesome team I had cultivated there. Going into a new company and new culture was a little scary and I wasn't sure what to expect. In some ways the company culture is better and in some ways it was worse. There are always trade offs right, but starting with a new team I found there were a few people in it that played the blame game actively and while some statements made might be true they weren't productive to getting work done.
The Question Behind the Question (QBQ) is a great starter book to identify when you are asking an incorrect question as opposed to a productive question. For example some of the incorrect questions management asks are things like:
While those are questions they really fall into a victimhood stance of things happening to you. There is nothing proactive in those statements, nothing that you are doing to fix these issues. Some better questions would be:
I think this is a must have fast read for anyone in management. Some managers don't capitalize on the differences of their teams and instead trying to treat everyone the same and I have found that is a horrible way to operate. Instead it is better to identify what are the strengths and weaknesses of all the team members and help they play to their strengths while developing their weaknesses.
This is a short enough book that I assigned it to a few of the people on my team I'm trying to develop for future leaders but also used some of the examples in our weakly meetings to talk about and identify how to change mindsets and work together to do less finger pointing and more how can I help fix this issue. I'm fortunate in a lot of ways there are so many tools to already do that but there are always areas of improvement and times that victim thinking needs to be squashed and this book will help with some tools of how to change the script from victim questions into something that is proactive and productive.
I recently left the company I had been working for the last twelve years and the awesome team I had cultivated there. Going into a new company and new culture was a little scary and I wasn't sure what to expect. In some ways the company culture is better and in some ways it was worse. There are always trade offs right, but starting with a new team I found there were a few people in it that played the blame game actively and while some statements made might be true they weren't productive to getting work done.
The Question Behind the Question (QBQ) is a great starter book to identify when you are asking an incorrect question as opposed to a productive question. For example some of the incorrect questions management asks are things like:
"Why doesn't the younger generation want to work?"
"When will we find good people?"
"Why aren't they motivated?"
"Who made the mistake?"
"When will they get ingaged?"
While those are questions they really fall into a victimhood stance of things happening to you. There is nothing proactive in those statements, nothing that you are doing to fix these issues. Some better questions would be:
"How can I be a more effective coach?"
"What can I do to better understand each person I manage?"
"How can I build a stronger team?"
I think this is a must have fast read for anyone in management. Some managers don't capitalize on the differences of their teams and instead trying to treat everyone the same and I have found that is a horrible way to operate. Instead it is better to identify what are the strengths and weaknesses of all the team members and help they play to their strengths while developing their weaknesses.
This is a short enough book that I assigned it to a few of the people on my team I'm trying to develop for future leaders but also used some of the examples in our weakly meetings to talk about and identify how to change mindsets and work together to do less finger pointing and more how can I help fix this issue. I'm fortunate in a lot of ways there are so many tools to already do that but there are always areas of improvement and times that victim thinking needs to be squashed and this book will help with some tools of how to change the script from victim questions into something that is proactive and productive.
Super quick read, nothing earth-shattering, but good reminders about personal accountability.
What a though provoking book. A great way to re-approach life and start asking better questions for yourself. A way to help change your thinking from the victim mentality to accepting accountability for your actions. This is one you will need to keep reading to make that paradigm shift in your world so that it impacts your way of thinking. All of our children are going to read this book and keep it on hand. It’s one of those that every person should buy and look back on.
This book was introduced to me from my employer who brought in John's daughter to introduce us to the QBQ! method.
First off - I have no issues with the message this book is trying to convey, I believe wholeheartedly in the importance of personal accountability and I agree that often times we are too quick to blame in the workplace and don't take enough time looking internally for the solutions to our problems.
However, how does one prevent "silos" from happening if every individual is only looking at what they can do? OF COURSE I agree that the only person you can change is yourself - and that is why personal accountability is so important because you can't change others, BUT if I don't have a fundamental understanding of WHY my company chose to do X or WHY my company hasn't implemented Y ----- then I probably don't have a very good idea of my employer's vision, direction, goal, target outcome, etc. Sometimes one has to ask those questions to better understand what is even going on. I NEED that information to ensure that when I ask "What can I do to support the organization" or "What can I do to be a more effective employee" I'll be on the right track.
While I can't control the people on my team or decide whether or not they will change - if I don't include them in my big picture thinking while I decide how I can contribute - then we aren't acting as a team, we are doomed to become scattered, off track, or duplicate each other's efforts by not realizing someone else has already begun solving X and they're close to finding the solution, so I probably shouldn't start from scratch in my efforts to solve the same thing. I'd probably be better served helping them. But until I ask, What are they doing for the team? I won't know they're working on X, close to a solution, and in need of my help! Your organization will soon become a hackathon, a bunch of people albeit engaged and hard at work, but unknowingly duplicating the same thing and thus wasting energy and wasting efforts that could be put to better use in an orchestrated manner.
I think creating rules on what words can start your sentences and what words can't is too simplistic. The root of the issue is the attitude not what word you use. "What was she thinking when she read my email and responded so rudely?" sounds totally different coming from the place of, I am genuinely trying to put myself in her shoes to see why she reacted to me in that way to see the situation from her perspective so I can understand where she is coming from.
If you have a positive/calm attitude and the mindset of someone who can only control yourself and wants to do everything possible to be a positive force and contribution to your environment, it doesn't matter what word you use to start your sentences with.
I also agree that blame can become toxic but sometimes you do need to address a leaky pipe, rather than do what you can to mop up water but take no action to figure out where the leak is coming from.
Overall, I support the main message, I just don't agree with every example or the oversimplification.
First off - I have no issues with the message this book is trying to convey, I believe wholeheartedly in the importance of personal accountability and I agree that often times we are too quick to blame in the workplace and don't take enough time looking internally for the solutions to our problems.
However, how does one prevent "silos" from happening if every individual is only looking at what they can do? OF COURSE I agree that the only person you can change is yourself - and that is why personal accountability is so important because you can't change others, BUT if I don't have a fundamental understanding of WHY my company chose to do X or WHY my company hasn't implemented Y ----- then I probably don't have a very good idea of my employer's vision, direction, goal, target outcome, etc. Sometimes one has to ask those questions to better understand what is even going on. I NEED that information to ensure that when I ask "What can I do to support the organization" or "What can I do to be a more effective employee" I'll be on the right track.
While I can't control the people on my team or decide whether or not they will change - if I don't include them in my big picture thinking while I decide how I can contribute - then we aren't acting as a team, we are doomed to become scattered, off track, or duplicate each other's efforts by not realizing someone else has already begun solving X and they're close to finding the solution, so I probably shouldn't start from scratch in my efforts to solve the same thing. I'd probably be better served helping them. But until I ask, What are they doing for the team? I won't know they're working on X, close to a solution, and in need of my help! Your organization will soon become a hackathon, a bunch of people albeit engaged and hard at work, but unknowingly duplicating the same thing and thus wasting energy and wasting efforts that could be put to better use in an orchestrated manner.
I think creating rules on what words can start your sentences and what words can't is too simplistic. The root of the issue is the attitude not what word you use. "What was she thinking when she read my email and responded so rudely?" sounds totally different coming from the place of, I am genuinely trying to put myself in her shoes to see why she reacted to me in that way to see the situation from her perspective so I can understand where she is coming from.
If you have a positive/calm attitude and the mindset of someone who can only control yourself and wants to do everything possible to be a positive force and contribution to your environment, it doesn't matter what word you use to start your sentences with.
I also agree that blame can become toxic but sometimes you do need to address a leaky pipe, rather than do what you can to mop up water but take no action to figure out where the leak is coming from.
Overall, I support the main message, I just don't agree with every example or the oversimplification.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
A practical book with real life (hopefully) examples. Gets you look inward to change the world around you. In this rampant narcissistic and self-absorbed age, this book is an be a game changer on how you approach issues. Must read if you work in teams and want to be a better manager/team player. However, be careful applying this concept in personal life relationships as sociopaths will easily manipulate you. Kudos to the author for making this book extremely brief to capture an average social media addicted attention deficit mind.