One exploration opens with eight honest questions before anyone shares experience. No advice hiding inside a question.
What it is
A normal exploration moves to experience quickly, because experience is what the group has and what it is proud of. This exercise puts a wall in front of that. Before a single share, the forum owes the presenter eight questions.
How to run it
The presenter presents as usual.
The moderator names the rule out loud: before any experience is shared, this group owes eight questions.
Go around the room. One honest question each, then keep going round until there are eight.
The presenter does not answer during the round. They write the questions down. Answering breaks the rhythm and turns it back into a conversation.
After the eighth, the presenter picks the two or three that landed hardest and answers those.
The exploration proceeds as normal from there.
The test for an honest question
You cannot predict the answer, and you are not hoping for a particular one.
Have you considered talking to your co-founder about this? is advice wearing a question mark. Everyone in the room can hear the recommendation inside it, including the presenter.
What happens between you and your co-founder when this comes up? is a question. Nobody knows the answer, and the answer might go anywhere.
Why it works
Self-curiosity is a practice, not a personality trait, and it is easier to practise on someone else first. Eight questions put the group inside the presenter’s situation before it starts reaching for its own material. Members who arrive with a solution have to hold it for fifteen minutes, and most of them find that the solution they were holding was for a different problem.
What to watch for
Stopping at five. The obvious questions run out around four. The eighth is the hardest to find and is usually the one the presenter remembers.
Compound questions. “Have you thought about X, and also, what about Y?” is two questions and one of them is advice. One at a time.
The presenter answering anyway. They will want to. A light touch from the moderator — hold that, we’re still asking — is enough.