Questions do
the work
Why It Matters
A carefully held question can invite pattern, contradiction, and lived complexity. A poorly held one—too broad, too rushed, too leading—can thin, dampen, or silence. This is why systems stories sometimes feel shallow even when people are generous and articulate: the question closed down what might have opened.
The craft is in the asking questions that create genuine space for what you don't yet know.
What This Looks Like
An organization wants to understand why families disengage from their services. Before any storytelling begins, the team spends two sessions developing and testing their core question. They discover their first draft—"Why do families leave?"—implies blame. They shift to: "What does it feel like to navigate this system?" The stories that emerge are entirely different.
Try This
Before any storytelling gathering, spend time developing and testing your core questions. Ask: What does this question invite? What does it foreclose? Is it genuinely open, or is it a statement in disguise? Test questions with people who will hear them differently than you do.
Story Circle Scenarios (all scenarios include question design)
Watch For
Rushing past this step because of time pressure. Also watch for questions that are instrumentalized—designed to produce a predetermined answer rather than to open inquiry. And watch for questions that assume shared language or shared experience.