{"id":231,"date":"2012-03-26T11:53:57","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T15:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/?p=231"},"modified":"2012-03-26T11:57:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T15:57:00","slug":"creating-a-culture-of-we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/2012\/03\/26\/creating-a-culture-of-we\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Culture of We"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-233 alignleft\" style=\"margin-right: 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/files\/2012\/03\/iStock_000007651615XSmall1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/files\/2012\/03\/iStock_000007651615XSmall1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/files\/2012\/03\/iStock_000007651615XSmall1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/files\/2012\/03\/iStock_000007651615XSmall1.jpg 347w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>Does your organization have a Questioning Culture?\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/elliott.gwu.edu\/faculty\/marquardt.cfm\">Michael Marquardt<\/a> suggests that a questioning culture exists when we ask questions of others and invite them to search for the answers with us.\u00a0 By doing this we not only share information with each other, we also share the responsibility for answering the tough questions associated with problems that we face.\u00a0 Does your organization display a list of \u201cshared values\u201d?\u00a0 A questioning culture encourages an environment that engages people throughout the organization listening, appreciating, building consensus, and resolving conflict.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When leaders ask questions, they gain insight into what others hope to create, what values they prize, and behaviors they desire.\u00a0 In answer-driven organizations, curiosity blooms and individuals feel safe to take risks and challenge the status quo.\u00a0 Such a questioning culture has six hallmarks identified by Marquardt in his book, <em>Leading with Questions<\/em>, (2005, p.29).\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a look at these.<\/p>\n<p>When an organization has a questioning culture, the people in it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are willing to admit, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Go beyond allowing questions; they encourage questions.<\/li>\n<li>Are helped to develop the skills needed to ask questions in a positive way.<\/li>\n<li>Focus on asking empowering questions and avoid disempowering questions.<\/li>\n<li>Emphasize the process of asking questions and searching for answers rather than finding the \u201cright\u201d answers (click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/extension\/community\/buildingcapacity\/pdf\/teams_thinking_hats.pdf\">here<\/a> for related article).<\/li>\n<li>Accept and reward risk taking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-235 alignright\" style=\"margin-left: 10px;border-width: 2px;border-color: black;border-style: solid\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/files\/2012\/03\/iStock_000018235400Small1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>In our webinar, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/extension\/community\/buildingcapacity\/?Page=webinars_lead_through_change.html\">Begin by Sculpting a Learning Organization<\/a>, the model we shared focused on learning that happens at the individual, team and organizational levels.\u00a0 Learning depends on curiosity and curiosity is associated with asking questions.\u00a0 A learning organization asks questions and builds a culture of <strong><em>we<\/em><\/strong>, not one of you versus me or management versus employees or employees versus volunteers.\u00a0 We are engaged in addressing questions that build a stronger understanding of each other and what we hold as important for the organization.\u00a0 We have a shared responsibility to find the most appropriate decision for the issues we face.\u00a0 We look for answers together, inviting all voices to be heard and all perspectives to have a voice.<\/p>\n<p>The quality of the decisions made in the organization is greatly enhanced if a questioning culture is active and strong.\u00a0 Is it alive and well in your organization?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does your organization have a Questioning Culture?\u00a0 Michael Marquardt suggests that a questioning culture exists when we ask questions of others and invite them to search for the answers with us.\u00a0 By doing this we not only share information with each other, we also share the responsibility for answering the tough questions associated with problems [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":613,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}