The Hindu Business Line : Do you have any questions?

Asking questions, it is often said, is not India’s forte. We are not known to be a questioning culture and our education system has unfortunately not encouraged questions being asked in the classroom. As a result of the syllabus diktat that prevails across educational institutions in the country, the need to ‘cover’ the curriculum has been given more importance than the need to ‘discover’ and no questions are asked.

Traditionally, it is believed that asking questions is being impertinent and disrespectful of authority. In a culture where the teacher or the parent is equated with God, questions that might have risen have eclipsed into acceptance. “Because my teacher said so,” is a common enough refrain heard from our children in India. Another reason why questioning has been discouraged is because it helps ‘save face’.

The question of saving face

Saving face is the glue that cements our culture; it enables the group to stay together through thick and thin. In a society where hierarchy matters, questioning can disturb the status quo and lead to confrontation. The need to appear to agree, at least in public, is vital. Eastern cultures, and India is one, are known to prize harmony over confrontation, relationships over tasks. Asking questions can jeopardise all this.

Questions that never get asked will never get answered. Many have carried into the workplace the burden of unasked questions. Our workplaces today are global environments where different cultures often interact. For people to productively interact with each other, questions need to be asked, doubts need to be clarified.

In Western cultures, questioning is the basis of all inquiry and learning. Descartes’ “I think therefore I am,” puts the individual, his affirmations and interrogations at the centre of the universe. In Indian culture, the individual belongs first to a family and a community. They generally take precedence over any individual preference.

Pitfalls of intercultural communication

Simply put, questioning and non-questioning cultures are required to work together in today’s increasingly globalised world. Asking questions is even more crucial in an intercultural environment where one cannot rely on familiar verbal and non-verbal signs. Consider this telephone conversation:

John: “I would like to review the150 slides by Wednesday afternoon please. Would you be able to send it to me by 2.00pm?”

Sangita: “Yes, I shall try.” (She knows it will be difficult but does not ask for more time and manpower) She does not say: “I will need another two days, could you give me more time to complete this? Is it all right if team B were to handle the first 50 slides? Is this the kind of presentation that you expect from me?”

John expects her to be upfront and voice her difficulties, if any. Since he has not had any questions from Sangita, he assumes that the work will be completed on time and is annoyed when it isn’t.

Avoid assumptions, clarify

For clear communication, clarify your doubts by asking questions and do not proceed on assumptions. To admit that you do not know, but that you wish to know, is not demeaning in any way. The ‘what will people say or think’, which often pre-empts any questions from being asked, can be a serious handicap when working in a global team.

We also tend to believe that asking questions is a sign of weakness. Shekhar has received a project report from Joanne in the US.

He notices some discrepancies, but doesn’t air his doubts. Months later he has to rework the report and admits that he was not very clear on what he was supposed to do. An exasperated Joanne retorts: “Why did you not ask?”

Asking questions implies that you are engaged with the process and in control. It implies that you are listening. The “Is this what you want me to do” or the “How do I proceed with this” or the “Could you specify which aspect needs to be looked at,” kind of questions set the compass for right understanding and right execution. A communication fallout can cost the industry dearly and asking timely questions can prevent this from happening.

In Global Adjustments’ training programmes we have seen just how difficult it is to get participants to ask questions. Questions don’t come easily to us or if they do, they don’t get voiced. This is rather unfortunate for a culture which as early as the second millennium BC had, in the Rig Veda, asked profound questions about the creation of the universe.

(The writer is Senior Manager, Cross-Cultural Services at Global Adjustments, a relocation and cross-cultural services company. She can be contacted at globalindian@globaladjustments.com)

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