Every decision, conversation, conflict, strategy, and breakthrough begins with questions, whether we're conscious of them or not. The questions we ask ourselves determine what we notice, assume, and do. The questions we ask others can open thinking or shut it down.
Question Intelligence™ (QI) is the capability to bring greater awareness, curiosity, and intention to how we think, listen, relate, decide, and act. We can all develop QI, including leaders, teams, the frontline, and coaches.
The key to exceptional thinking, communicating, and relating lies in effectively asking the best questions of ourselves and others. It starts with noticing your mindset, the assumptions running underneath your thinking, and the questions driving your reactions before they drive your decisions.
Notice your mindset, your questions, and the assumptions behind them, before they drive your decisions.
Listen before answering or fixing. Ask questions that help others examine their thinking, discover options, and take more ownership.
Surface assumptions, invite full participation and engagement, and create conditions where people can question, disagree, learn, collaborate, and innovate.
Powered by Question Thinking™, the body of work Dr. Marilee Adams has developed for more than 40 years.
For managers, leaders, and those who support them, this is where better questions pay off first.
Surface questions, assumptions, and blind spots before commitments are made, not after.
People bring their full thinking and voices instead of staying quiet or waiting to be told what to do.
People are more willing to ask, challenge, contribute, and admit what they don't know.
Disagreements turn into better thinking and collaborating rather than standoffs or shutdowns.
Catch misunderstandings and poorly framed problems earlier, before they cost time, energy, and money.
People stay clear and curious rather than anxious when things get complex, uncertain, or fast-moving.
“Learner practices contributed to saving millions of dollars. We now have 94–100% engagement as rated by Gallup, and it's helped us create an Inquiring Organization.”IT Director · U.S. Department of the Treasury
“QT participants are experiencing career advancement at nearly 2:1 compared to peers who didn't participate. QT totally changed the conversations our leaders create.”Robert Hall, M.S. · HR Training & Development, Kent State University
Question Intelligence™ strengthens the programs and practices your organization already has.
Because QI works at the level underneath all of them: how people think, question, listen, and decide.
The Choice Map™ makes this invisible inner process visible, so you can recognize where your thinking is taking you and choose differently.
Dr. Marilee Adams developed Question Thinking™ after recognizing something deceptively simple:
“What's wrong with them?” leads somewhere very different from “What am I missing?” That insight became Question Thinking™, the Choice Map™, 14 practical tools, and a body of work used by leaders, coaches, educators, teams, and organizations around the world.
Question Intelligence™ is what those tools build: skill with questions in your own thinking and in your conversations with others.
The key to exceptional thinking, communicating, and relating lies in skillfully asking the best questions of ourselves and others.
Dr. Marilee AdamsOriginator of Question Thinking™ and Question Intelligence™
The 5th Edition brings two powerful new tools, an expanded 14-tool Question Thinking™ system, and a new chapter on navigating AI, technology, and change. The book that has shaped hundreds of thousands of leaders. Updated for today's world.
Order 10+ copies and receive Implementation & Discussion Prompts for your team, a Concise Facilitation Guide for team leads and coaches, and a Digital Choice Map™ shareable with your entire group.
AI can generate an answer almost instantly. It can't decide for you:
Question Intelligence™ isn't just about questioning what AI gives you. It's about questioning your own answers too.
An interactive session with Dr. Marilee Adams and Dianna Bensch on the judgment calls only you can make: questioning your questions, testing the answers, and catching the assumptions and blind spots behind what you ask.
Register Free →
Four live sessions with Dr. Adams, Nov 6 & 20 and Dec 4 & 18. 10 ICF CCE hours. For leaders, coaches, HR, and L&D teams. Teams of 3+ save 15%.
Explore the Program →Download the map and start noticing when you're in Judger, and how to switch.
Get the Free Choice Map™ →
Applied to the conversations and decisions your people are already facing.
Talk With Us →The book behind the work, with 14 Question Thinking™ tools.
Order the Book →Question Thinking™ has helped teams at the U.S. Treasury, Homeland Security, and a large North American bank build cultures where people think, learn, and improve together.
For executive teams, HR, and L&D leaders who need better thinking at scale, applied to the conversations and decisions that already fill the calendar.
We work through leadership and team programs, keynotes, and book-based learning, applied to the work your people are already doing.
Consulting firms and learning partners use Question Thinking™ to strengthen the solutions they already deliver. It sharpens discovery, deepens coaching, improves decision quality, and leaves clients with practical tools they keep using after the engagement ends.
Keynotes, webinars, workshops, and leadership sessions.
Woven into leadership, coaching, sales, culture, change, or team development.
Licensed materials, trained internal facilitators, and practice tools.
AI readiness, sales discovery, manager enablement, and meeting effectiveness.
“We’ve used Question Thinking so successfully in our work with teams that it has led to a radical transformation in how people approach and resolve problems. It also made an immediate and sustained change in their behavior. In an organizational culture, the more people can be taught these processes, the greater positive impact it can have on productivity and the bottom line.”
Carmella GranadoSenior Director of Organizational Effectiveness, Flextronics“Question Thinking has transformed my life. The relationship with my wife, my family as well how I lead and influence teams. The impact of that is that my teams positively influence their families also with a Learner mindset and so piece by piece we are building a more positive, Learner world. It has also enabled me to build stronger trust with my teams which, as we know, is a key foundation for organization success.”
Nick AndrewsSenior Director, Expedia and Chief Question Officer“One of the most valuable contributions I’ve made to the leaders in my organization is to help them recognize the difference and impact between directing and inquiring. Leaders report positive results, including that their employees are more committed, are offering more suggestions, and are ‘driving their own careers.’ These leaders also report a stronger connection with their staff overall.”
Laura MendelowLearning & Development Specialist2026 Inquiry Institute
