Use it in your work life, personal life, and everywhere in between
Early on in my sales training, I had to sit down with engineers and learn about the technical side of what the company sells. The company I work for places a lot of emphasis on its technical aptitude and sells based on industry-leading technical services. So when I began talking with the senior engineers, I expected some definitive and informative answers to most of my questions.
Instead, I kept getting the same answer to quite a bit of them. In fact, I got the answer so often that it became a kind of inside joke among those of us training with the engineers. The answer I kept getting was: “it depends.”
‘It Depends.’
I would ask the senior engineer what he would recommend in this case or that. He would say “it depends.” Inevitably, I would ask “on what?” To which he’d often reply, “what are the customer’s goals? What are their constraints? How strict are they about making changes?” And so on.
When I first heard it, I thought is was a cop-out — a way of avoiding blame if a recommendation was wrong. But as I continued to receive that answer, I realized that it wasn’t a cop-out. In fact, it was a sneaky way of encouraging me to stop looking for quick answers from supposed experts and start asking for more information from the people who would feel the most impact from whatever answer I gave.
Prescription Without Diagnosis is Malpractice
The engineer and salesman who would serve as my mentor had an explanation for using the “it depends” approach. It came in the form of his favorite quote:
Prescription Without Diagnosis is Malpractice
He would tell me that to answer a question to quickly is like prescribing a treatment without being sure what the ailment is. It can only serve to increase the risk that you waste your time, make things worse by trying to solve the wrong problem, or both.
It helps to put yourself in the head of the person who asked the question. Something motivated them to ask it. Whatever that was is worth digging into. If you don’t dig into it, you’re leaving an opportunity — or many opportunities — on the table. In many cases, people don’t ask the question they’re really hoping to ask. Or they don’t even know what answer they’re looking for, so they ask an easy question without thinking much about it. Be on the lookout for this. Again: lost opportunities.
It doesn’t matter what your job is, or even outside of the context of work — questioning questions is a powerful practice. And “it depends” is a great gateway to establishing that practice. Don’t be afraid to question the questions. You’ll be glad you did.