The document discusses strategic questioning as a technique for generating ideas and engaging communities in processes of change. It describes how strategic questioning involves open-ended questions that make people think and talk, without correct answers, in order to generate new information and ideas. It provides examples of strategic questions and explains how the technique was developed and can be used for personal change, social change, and environmental education.

1. Strategic Questioning
Sue and Colin Lennox
Co-Founders OzGREEN
How do we bring about change in our society? How do we generate ideas for change ?
How do we engage the community in a process of change? How can we as communities
and individuals act to save the planet?
All these questions are strategic questions; open-ended questions to which there are no
"correct" answers. Rather these questions make us think and talk. They are questions that
can generate new information and new ideas.
During our careers as teachers we had done a lot What can I do to help the world today?
of peace education and environmental education.
However, we observed that the enormity of peace, Visioning
nuclear and environmental issues challenging our Visioning is a process that helps us to imagine the
society was sometimes overwhelming for our kind of future our dreams are made of. The
students. We would see them shut down, rather technique can help to solve issues and envision
than engage. We began a search for ways of solutions. With a positive image of where we want
engaging in learning that would enable us to tell to go, it is easier to plan how to get there.
the truth – we knew that it was important to be Strategies can have a different outlook, with an
preparing people to take on the full extent of the emphasis on the directions we would prefer to go
challenges of these times. We needed to find new rather than developing plans based on a
ways of teaching and learning that enabled the projection of current trends.
enormity of these issues to be taken in without
overwhelm. Tools for learning and engaging that Visioning is about “creative dreaming” - building a
were empowering. picture based on hopes and dreams. It involves
us in developing a picture of how they would like
Inner Listening things to be in the future. It is a way of enhancing
The outer search for peace and engagement was positive actions, by enabling the development of a
accompanied by an inner search. During the mid “picture in the mind” of what we want to achieve in
1980’s we began a regular meditation practice. As the long term – of how we would really like things
our experience of meditation deepened, we found to be. It is essentially a creative experience that
our heart’s call for compassion and action also can generate a new way of looking at a situation.
deepened. Increasingly we were able to “hear” the
feelings of our own hearts – the inner voice of We have used visioning processes in many
conscience. aspects of our work at Oz GREEN. During student
environmental congresses, the visioning process
“The human voice can never reach the helps young people to think about their futures
distance that is covered by the still small differently – it is a hope generator. When working
voice of conscience”. Gandhi 1922 with local communities in Papua New Guinea,
India and East Timor we use a more practical
Making a quiet time for inner listening each day approach to visioning by involving villagers in
can have a radical effect on your life. There are a drawing a timeline on the ground. In all these
variety of meditation tools that we use, but one of situations visioning has shown itself to be a
our favourites is to ask a strategic question each powerful tool for positive change.
morning – and then just listen quietly to the
answers that come from within over the next few Strategic Questioning
days. Strategic questioning is a technique we have
found to be very effective in enabling people to
Questions like: look at a situation, think about it creatively and
What does it mean to live as a responsible adult develop strategies, priorities and achievable
in these times? action plans. We first learnt the technique at a
Oz GREEN PO Box 301, Bellingen NSW 2545 Phone 02 99385544 Fax 02 6655 1964 1
Email: slennox@ozgreen.org.au Web: www.ozgreen.org.au © Oz GREEN 2001

2. training workshop in 1989. Since then we have Strategic questioning requires careful and
gone on to use strategic questioning as a tool for sensitive listening, and constant adaptation.
personal change, social change and
environmental education. The effect of applying Applying these tools
the tool of strategic questioning to our own lives
has been revolutionary. In our work
As we practiced strategic questioning within our
The technique was developed by Fran Peavey, teaching the effects were remarkable. There was
our friend and co-worker on the Swatcha Ganga also remarkable coincidence in the arising of
(Clean Ganges Campaign) in Varanasi. Fran was opportunities to use the technique – it is a good
seeking ways of working with the people of story to tell.
Varanasi in India to clean the river. One of the first
questions she asked was “What would you like to We attended our first Strategic Questioning
do to help clean up the river?”Fran assumed that training workshop in November 1989. We could
the people wanted to clean the river. feel the lights going in inside us about the value of
this tool for change education. At the time, Sue
She sought to find ways of doing it that were was a teacher at Freshwater High School and had
appropriate to that place and culture. been working with her students to investigate
pollution of the creek that ran through the school.
A strategic question - (Greendale Creek) The following week there was
• brings forth new information. a major pollution incident in Greendale Creek. A
• assumes movement. large section of the creek was turned bright blue
(we suspected a paint spill). Thousands of fish lay
• creates confidence that motion can
dead, floating on the surface of the creek and Curl
actually happen. Curl Lagoon.
• respects the person who is being
questioned. The kids were outraged. Over the following week,
• is a way of talking with people with whom Sue used strategic questioning with her students,
you have differences, without enabling them to talk about their concerns and
abandoning your own beliefs and yet feelings openly and then go on to develop
looking for common ground. strategies for change.
One of the basic assumptions of strategic They decided to begin work on implementing
questioning is that the solution to any situation lies some of their ideas and initiated regular
with the people who are experiencing it. Wisdom monitoring of creek water quality, began work on a
lives in every person, not only in those who have survey of the local industrial area and started to
achieved a particular education. The wisdom, develop a video to raise awareness about the
experience and will to make change, as well as to state of the creek. These were simple, logical
create the environment and culture for change, is ideas that the students developed themselves –
in all of us. The answer to any problem lies in the the impacts of implementing these strategies were
context where the problem is. We can bring in very far reaching.
ideas from outside, we can learn from each other,  The water monitoring and action program
but when you want a strategy, a plan for action or drew the attention of Sydney Water, who
change, it has to come from the person, place or invited us to work with them as they
society that has the problem. Our job is to help established their own schools water-
these answers arise, to recognise them and monitoring program, based on the GREEN
support them in whatever way we can. model. Freshwater High School became the
first “Streamwatch” school.
We can think of question families, increasing in  The “Fresh Water” video took us 12 months to
fluidity, dynamic and strategic power as we move complete and has inspired many thousands of
down from one family to another. In any people and won a UN Association of Australia
questioning session one tends to start near the Media Peace Award in 1991.
top of the family order and work down to the more  The survey of the industrial area was so good
powerful strategic questions. This is not a that it later became the seed underlying our
prescribed format, however, and it is often “kids, companies and creeks” project.
necessary to move back and forth from family to  In 1992 Freshwater High School was
family eg. from strategy, to feeling, to action, to designated as a Centre of Excellence in
visioning. Environmental Education by the NSW
Government.
Oz GREEN PO Box 301, Bellingen NSW 2545 Phone 02 99385544 Fax 02 6655 1964 2
Email: slennox@ozgreen.org.au Web: www.ozgreen.org.au © Oz GREEN 2001

3. Mother Ganga
We shared the outcomes of our strategic
questioning with Fran Peavey – in 1991 she
invited us to go to India to help with the education
program of the Swatcha Ganga Campaign in
Varanasi. This invitation proved to have life
changing impacts.
Leaving our young family in the care of their
grandmothers, we travelled to India in our school
vacation. We had not travelled outside Australia
before. We arrived in Delhi in the early hours of
the morning, after travelling for 18 hours straight.
The air inside the airport was suffocating with
smoke and fumes, but the air outside was worse –
this grey-brown pall extended right across India.
During this first trip we trained around 50 people
to use the water quality monitoring equipment we
had brought with us. It was the first time that
faecal coliform levels were investigated by the
Foundation. The results of this testing broke our
hearts. We realised two things – that the
environment was in really deep trouble and that
we had something to contribute.
We realised two things – that the
environment was in really deep trouble and
that we had something to contribute.
Applying SQ to our own lives
India deeply challenged our hearts. We decided to
apply the tool of strategic questioning to our own
lives. We took it in turns to strategically question
each other - sharing our deepest concerns and
ideas for change. Questions like “what are you
prepared to do” and “how can we support
ourselves to do this?” made us dig deep into
ourselves for answers and personal commitment.
As a result of this process, we decided to set up a
not for profit organisation so we could continue to
pursue our heart’s work. To enable this to happen
we needed to quit our jobs as teachers, sell our
home and move our family in with Col’s Mother.
Oz GREEN began in 1993 as two volunteers
working out of a borrowed garage.
Oz GREEN PO Box 301, Bellingen NSW 2545 Phone 02 99385544 Fax 02 6655 1964 3
Email: slennox@ozgreen.org.au Web: www.ozgreen.org.au © Oz GREEN 2001

4. Strategic Questioning
With special thanks to Fran Peavey (1941-2010)
1. Focus Questions
What are you most concerned about?
How does this affect you personally?
What have you seen or heard about this in your own life? (give an example)
How do you feel about this situation?
2. Visioning Questions
How would you like this situation to be?
What would you like to see happen?
3. Change Questions
How do you think this can happen?
How can these changes come about?
In a group situation it is useful to brainstorm different ideas.
4. Action Questions
What can you see yourself doing?
What are you prepared to do?
Who can support you in this action? Who do you need to speak to?
1. FOCUS QUESTIONS.
Focus questions identify the situation and the key facts necessary to an understanding of the
situation.. They are not strategic questions because they do not generate new information.
However they are necessary for strategic questioning to work as they set the context for the
questioning.
"What are you most concerned about in your community?"
Observation Questions
Are concerned with what one sees and the information one has heard with regard to the situation.
Note that the situation is not referred to as a problem, so as not to set a field which may limit
creative thinking.
"What do you see happening?" "What do you hear?"
"What do you know about the situation?" "What have you learnt about it?"
"What effects of this situation have you noticed in people?, in the earth?"
"What do you know for sure and what are you not certain about?"
key words: see, know, hear, find, etc.
Analysis Questions
What do you think are the causes of ….?
What is the relationship of ….. to ……?
Oz GREEN PO Box 301, Bellingen NSW 2545 Phone 02 99385544 Fax 02 6655 1964 4
Email: slennox@ozgreen.org.au Web: www.ozgreen.org.au © Oz GREEN 2001

5. What is the meaning of this to our community?
What are the economic structures that affect this situation?
What are the economic political structures that affect this situation?
What are the social structures that affect this situation?
Feeling Questions
Are concerned with body sensations, emotions and health.
"When you think or talk about this situation, what does it feel like?" "Where do you feel this in your
body?"
"How has the situation affected your own physical or emotional health?"
key words: feel, suffer, tired, angry, sad, frustrated, needs
2. VISIONING QUESTIONS
Visioning questions are concerned with identifying one's ideals, dreams, values.
"How could the situation be changed so it was how you would like it to be?"
"What would you like to see happen?"
"What about this situation do you care so much about?"
"What is the meaning of this situation in your own life?"
key words: hope, wish, like, love, better, justice
3. CHANGE QUESTIONS
Change questions are concerned with how to get from the present situation towards a more ideal
situation. These questions generate ideas for change. It is useful to do this process as a creative
thinking process. “Brainstorming” can help to open the mind to new ideas – just let the ideas flow
without question or comment.
"What is it going to take to bring this about?"
"How can we do this?"
"What exactly needs to change here?"
"How might those changes come about? Name as many ways as possible."
"What can we do?" "Who can make a difference?"
key words: people, officials, everybody needs to, government, etc.
We have found it useful to generate a whole list of possibilities as a creative process and then to
come back and choose those ideas that most appeal. It helps to decide which action you most
want to begin with.
Oz GREEN PO Box 301, Bellingen NSW 2545 Phone 02 99385544 Fax 02 6655 1964 5
Email: slennox@ozgreen.org.au Web: www.ozgreen.org.au © Oz GREEN 2001

6. Personal Inventory and Support Questions
• are concerned with identifying one's interests, potential contribution and the support
necessary to act.
"What are you prepared to do?" "What do you like to do that might be useful in bringing about
these changes?"
"Tell me what is special about you?" "What support would you need to work for this change?"
key words: What will it take, part of change, your part, everyone has a role, etc.
4. ACTION QUESTIONS
Action questions get down to the specifics of what to do, how and when to do it. The actual plan
begins to emerge.
"How can you get from here to there (your vision)?"
"What is the first step?" "What can you do now to begin?"
"Who do you need to talk to?"
"How will you get an introduction to them that will establish your credibility?"
"How can you get others together at a meeting to work on this?"
Once a course of action is decided upon, we have found it useful to do something within the next
day to move down the new path. For example when first asked to go to India to help with the
Swatcha Ganga (Clean Ganges) Campaign, we had no idea how it was going to be possible. But
the next day we went up to my mother’s place and borrowed a travel pack. The intention to begin
was set in motion.
Hints For Strategic Questioning
AVOID questions that suggest specific alternatives
"Have you considered...",
Yes/no questions,
"Why" questions.
Sometimes, however, a "why" question may be very appropriate and call for a deep answer
because understanding history is very important in change. Why questions are focus questions but
since they seek to explain the present in terms of the past they are not dynamic.
Further Reading
Fran Peavey: Heart Politics Revisited, Pluto Press 2000
Fran Peavey: By Life’s Grace – Musings on the Essence of Social Change, New Society Publishers 1994
Dedicated to benefit of all beings, in loving memory of Fran Peavey (1941-2010)
Oz GREEN PO Box 301, Bellingen NSW 2545 Phone 02 99385544 Fax 02 6655 1964 6
Email: slennox@ozgreen.org.au Web: www.ozgreen.org.au © Oz GREEN 2001