Engagement Technique: The Impossible Question
What if you asked your team a question they probably couldn’t answer?
Not because it’s a bad question.
Because it’s deliberately too difficult.
How about giving your people an ambitious, uncomfortable or seemingly impossible question and ask them to have a go. Think:
How could we halve our costs without reducing quality?
How could we recruit twice as fast without lowering our standards?
How could we double customer satisfaction without spending any more money?
How could we make every meeting 50% shorter?
How could we make our product twice as useful to customers?
How it works
Pick one big question (at a cadence that works for you) and give teams some time to think about it.
You could ask people to submit ideas individually, discuss it in teams, or turn it into a short competition with a prize for the most interesting solution.
The important part is to avoid immediately shutting ideas down with: “That would never work.”
Instead, ask: “What would have to be true for this to work?”
That question can take the conversation somewhere much more interesting.
You may discover that the original idea is impossible, but uncover three smaller ideas that are completely achievable.
Why it works
Most businesses naturally think within their existing constraints. “We can’t do that because we’ve always done it this way.”
An impossible question temporarily removes some of those constraints.
It encourages people to think differently, question assumptions and consider possibilities they wouldn’t normally explore. It can also give quieter employees a chance to contribute, and occasionally, you might actually find an answer!
What to watch out for
⚠️ Don’t use real problems disguised as impossible questions
If you genuinely need to halve costs, don’t turn the exercise into a pretend challenge. Make it clear when you’re exploring versus making a business decision.
⚠️ Don’t kill ideas too quickly
The whole point is to suspend some of the usual constraints.
⚠️ Don’t expect an answer every time
Sometimes the most valuable outcome is a new way of looking at the problem.
⚠️ Don’t let it become a management-only exercise
Give everyone the opportunity to contribute, regardless of their role or seniority.
This post is part of our Engagement Techniques series of practical, low-cost ideas to bring more connection and meaning into work. Find the rest here
👉 Want to explore techniques like this in more depth? I run interactive employee engagement workshops where we bring these ideas to life.