A simple tool to teach kids (and adults) how to ask smarter questions

Click the image to see the source.

If you print and cut out the illustration above and then glue the tabs, you’ll have more than just a cube — you’ll also have a tool that’ll help you teach kids (and hey, adults too) how to ask smarter questions.

If you roll it like a die, you’ll get one of three possible questions, each of which is a first step:

• Why is it actually…? “Why” questions are the first step in getting to the heart of a problem.
• What would happen if…? “What if?” questions are the first step toward creative solutions.
• How could I do that…? These are the first step toward developing practical solutions.

Michael van Riper, from whom I found about this die, writes:

Think about it: A four-year-old asks on average about 400 questions per day, and an adult hardly asks any. Our school system is structured around rewards for regurgitating the right answer, and not asking smart questions – in fact, it discourages asking questions. With the result that as we grow older, we stop asking questions. Yet asking good questions is essential to find and develop solutions, and important skill in innovation, strategy, and leadership. So why do we stop asking questions – and more importantly, why don’t we train each other, and our future leaders, to ask the right questions starting from early on?

This tool is meant to help children (and once again, adults) become better at asking questions, and smarter ones too.

Here’s how you use it, according to van Riper:

Pick up your favorite illustrated fairy tale book – the kind of book you’d read a two-year-old for bedtime stories. On each page, roll the cube and answer the question together. I’ll bet you’d be surprised by what turns Little Red Riding Hood can take… and more importantly, I’ll bet that after a while, you and your child will both start asking these questions more often than not!

Never mind bedtime stories — I can think of more than a few corporate settings where this die would be very useful.