How to ask questions Tip 15 - Don’t ask questions you could easily look up the answers to

9 Aug 2022 · 2 min

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In this short instructional video, speaker Chris Fenning presents Tip 15 for effective workplace questioning: avoid asking questions whose answers are readily discoverable through self‑service resources. He outlines a range of tools—search engines, Google, user manuals, YouTube tutorials, prior email threads, and internal process documentation—that can often provide the needed information. Fenning explains why bypassing these resources wastes both the asker’s and the responder’s time, interrupts deep‑work flow, and doubles the effort required to reach an answer. He acknowledges that direct, in‑person queries can be appropriate when they are significantly faster or more convenient than a self‑search, but stresses that the default should be self‑research. The overall message is a call for personal responsibility in information seeking to preserve colleagues’ productivity and maintain efficient work processes.

Chapters

How to ask questions tip number 15: don't ask questions that you could easily look up the answers to. When we ask questions, we're looking for information, but asking other people isn't always the best or most efficient way. It's certainly not the only way to find answers. You can use a search engine, you can Google the answer, you can look at user manuals, find something on YouTube, you can Look at previous email chains. Check out the process manuals at work. There are lots of sources of information that you could look up and get an answer. Just because you'd like someone else to give it to you quickly doesn't mean it's the right thing to do to ask the question. If you can, if you can look for an answer yourself, it's usually better to do that. Now, if you don't do this, if you ask somebody a question that you could easily look up the answer to, What you're doing is taking time away from them and their work. You are interrupting them, breaking their process flow. If they're in a deep work phase, if you're familiar with that phrase, you can be pulling them up out and then breaking their concentration cycle. It's also taking twice as much time, or taking time for 2 people to get to an answer that you could have taken time just for yourself to find. This isn't to say you should never ask other people. Sometimes it is much more convenient to lean over to the person next to you and they can hand you an answer within a second rather than you taking half an hour to find it. But if you can easily find an answer for yourself, do that rather than asking a question.