Question Everything

Sometimes in order to solve a problem or help our doctors we have to introduce the dog. In the Sherlock Holmes story Silver Blaze a horse has been stolen and a stable master slain. It is the usual puzzling scenario that the local police are unable to solve. When Holmes enters the picture, he immediately deduces that the stable master was involved in the theft of the horse. How did he do that?

The policeman asks him, “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

Holmes answers, “To the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.”

The inspector says, “The dog did nothing in the nighttime,” to which Holmes replies, “That is the curious incident.”

Holmes was using logic and questions to discover that the watchdog had not been alerted. Who would the dog not bark at in the middle of the night? Ask the right questions, and it is elementary.

Dorothy Leeds examines why 1uestions are so powerful in communication in her book The 7 Powers of Questions. The examples in her brief and easy to read book are not dental, but they are applicable to dentistry and our laboratories, especially to doctor-laboratory communications.

   1. Questions demand answers.
   2. Questions stimulate thinking.
   3. Questions give us valuable information.
   4. Questions put you in control.
   5. Questions get people to open up.
   6. Questions lead to quality listening.
   7. Questions get people to persuade themselves.

Picasso mused that computers were useless. They could only give you answers.  Think about that the next time you are discussion treatment a case with a client.  Have you asked the right questions? Or are we giving answers?  

As inspector Clouseau pulled back his hand that the dog just bit, he said, “I thought you answered me that your dog does not bite.”

The man replied, “He doesn’t, but that is not my dog!”