The Impossibility Question was something I learned from Dave and Mahrnelle Hibbard, co-founders of Dialexis, a leading sales training company.
It is a way to bypass objections such as, “Yes, but,” “It’ll never work,” “That’s impossible,” etc.
The question is asked as follows: “What would be something that would be impossible to do, but if it could be done, would rapidly accelerate your/our achieving any outcome you/we desire?”
By stating it this way, it leads with something would clearly be thought to be impossible, so that it eliminates anyone coming back with that response what is already stated upfront.
Following this, the next question is, “What would make it possible?”
With regard to the Ukraine invasion by Russia, what is something that would be impossible to do, but if it could be done would lead to a rapid end to the conflict?
An obvious answer would be, “To cause Putin to stop the invasion of Ukraine and stop him from any future invasions of sovereign states.”
What would make that possible?
“If Putin were arrested and detained and then to possibly await trial for war crimes.”
What would make that possible?
“If the Russian people felt such economic hardship and also began seeing enough of unfiltered reports about the invasion and also the cost to Russian soldiers being killed that they would wake up and see that Putin has been lying to them and cause them to collectively stop him.”
Or, “If enough powerful oligarchs band together and whose joint, collective anger at Putin overcomes their fear of retaliation by him, might they pay off top military to turn on Putin?”
Or, “If there were a cyber way to neutralize and stop the launching of any nuclear weapons.”
These are obviously overly simplified answers to the Impossibility Question, and I have shared them with you to whet your appetite to come up with better responses.
So please give it your best effort and share yours.
Putin and the Impossibility Question
Mark. NIce thoughts. I'd think about even more impossibler (bad grammar intended) which I've tried to get at in my substack post, typos and all. https://thedotconnecters.substack.com/p/when-will-they-ever-learn?s=w
The peacebuilding network I work for is finding that even policy makers here in DC are asking bit--if not impossible--questions, which hasn't been the case in years.
So, there is an audience for ideas like the ones you kicked out.
And none of us have all the answers.
Thanks again.