Ask A Good Question Today
Adrian Gonzalez
President, Adelante SCM (Talking Logistics, Indago, & LL4T1DCure Team)
A few years ago I came across the following story, which was published in the New York Times on January 19, 1988:
Isidor I. Rabi, the Nobel laureate in physics was once asked, ”Why did you become a scientist, rather than a doctor or lawyer or businessman, like the other immigrant kids in your neighborhood?”
“My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: ‘So? Did you learn anything today?’ But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. ‘Izzy,’ she would say, ‘did you ask a good question today?’ That difference – asking good questions – made me become a scientist!”
Rabi’s mother intuitively understood that asking good questions is the path to insightful learning, or as Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana put it in Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions (Harvard Education Letter, September/October 2011), “When students know how to ask their own questions, they take greater ownership of their learning, deepen comprehension, and make new connections and discoveries on their own.”
If instead of physics Isidor Rabi had pursued a career in supply chain management, I’m sure he would have been just as successful, and he would have credited his success to the same skill that made him a Nobel laureate: his ability to ask questions, and to refine and prioritize them.
If nothing else, supply chain management is a discipline of constant inquiry. It’s about continuously asking Why?, How?, What?, When?, and Who? to find solutions to problems as they emerge (which happens every day) and to develop new ideas that pave the way to innovation and continuous improvement (which should happen every day too).
Enabling supply chain and logistics professionals to ask good questions and learn from each other (in a trusted and confidential manner) is what inspired us to launch our Indago research community in 2019. Since we launched, our members (supply chain and logistics professionals from manufacturing, retail, and distribution companies) have shared their perspectives and advice on a wide variety of industry topics. Here are the questions we explored this past quarter:
“To make the most of [your questions], don’t ask them in closed leadership meetings,” writes John Hagel III in a 2021 Harvard Business School Review article titled, Good Leadership Is About Asking Good Questions. “Instead, broadcast them throughout your organization and even beyond it [emphasis mine] … Reaching out beyond the institution to connect with expertise and perspectives from a broader set of more diverse sources will help your company learn faster.”
Simply put, ask a good question today and every day. And if you want to learn faster and obtain perspectives from a broader set of your peers in the industry, consider joining our Indago supply chain research community. It is confidential, there is no cost to join, and the time commitment is minimal (2-4 minutes per week) — plus your participation will help support charitable causes like Breakthrough T1D, American Cancer Society, Feeding America, Make A Wish, and American Logistics Aid Network. Since 2019, we have donated more than $22,000 to these charities thanks to our members asking good supply chain and logistics questions and sharing their perspectives and experiences with each other.
What is your question today?
President, Adelante SCM (Talking Logistics, Indago, & LL4T1DCure Team)
4moKevin J. Hume and Capt Sunil Devrani Thank you both for sharing your perspective on this topic. I will add that knowing WHAT questions to ask -- and HOW to ask them -- is arguably more important today in light of Artificial Intelligence tools and agents. For example, if you use ChatGPT, how you phrase and structure your question makes a difference in the response you get back. So, asking questions is not enough; how to ask them is important too.
Co Founder & Project Executive at Thru-Put Partners
4moExactly right...it's all about the questions. I often tell people I'm a professional puzzle solver. It all starts with the questions you ask....thanks for sharing this!
Co-Founder @ Frayto | Building Solutions to Power Freight Visibility, Procurement & Global Shipment Management
4moLoved this post, Adrian. It echoes something we see often in global logistics: • The average practitioner asks “What?” What’s the status of that container? What’s the delay? They’re stuck chasing updates—one email, one call at a time. • The good ones ask “How?” How do we avoid these delays? How can we bring more predictability? They’re trying to fix the process—make things smoother, faster. • But the exceptional ones ask “Why?” Why are we still flying blind once the shipment leaves? Why can’t everyone—teams, customers, partners—see the same truth? Why haven’t we solved this yet? That’s where real change begins. That’s where visibility, collaboration, and trust take root. At Frayto, we’ve seen that once someone starts asking why, they’re already halfway to transforming how freight is managed.