Keyword - Question-framing
- see rhetorical questions
- see answer-seeking questions
- see outcome-seeking questions
- see opportunity-seeking questions
- see wicked questions
- see our glossary of terms
The idea of the Question
What is a question? Judging by Wikipedia's rather hesitant entry for Questions we are still bound by an ancient focus on truth-based, logical, or rhetorical reasoning, rather than with looking for more imaginative ways of opportunity-finding and sharing (see auspicious reasoning). It is tempting, therefore to suggest that all questions are rhetorical questions, if not in the full sense that we always want to persuade someone of our viewpoint, or needs, but in choosing the metaphors that are most likely to set the tone of the discussion, or its terms of reference.
Question-framing as a type of metadesign
Questions elicit answers because they are both attractive and incomplete. It follows from this description that there are at least two players - the question-framer and the respondent. This suggests that we are dealing with a co-creative, and transformative collaborative (i.e. what we call sympioesis). This relates to the verb to language. If the question-framer takes great care in formulating a question, the respondent is likely to answer in a way that pleases him, or her. In this sense, we might see question-framing as a mode of metadesigning, especially when it requires radical innovation at the level of grammar or vocabulary. The art of question-framing works well, when the questioner realises that (semantic) meanings and (actual) outcomes are co-dependent with one another.