Whether it is defining a objectivedevelop an action plan or resolve a problem, Quintilian’s Hexameter (also called the QQOQCCP questioning method) helps you to be more specific, avoid ambiguities and gain efficiency.
This method originated in the first century AD, in Rome. The Master of Rhetoric and lawyer Marcus Fabius Quitilianus (35-95) had the habit of analyzing all the situations he had to deal with, through a filter of questions as basic as they were factual: “Who, what, where, with what means, why, how, when? ».
It is this series of six basic questions that we call Quintilian’s Hexameter; the question “How much” was added later to complete the original method.
How does it work? This method of questioning simply consists, when faced with a given situation or an objective to be achieved, of asking the basic questions: What? Who ? Or ? When ? How ? How much ? For what ?
Quintilian’s Hexameter describes a situation from all its angles. By addressing all these aspects, we can understand a situation, an event and then analyze it. It is a basic organizational tool that is often used in conjunction with other tools or working methods.
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By asking the right questions, we can collect quantitative and qualitative information regarding the situation or the objective to be achieved. We gather data and factual information that precisely defines the problem to be addressed.
Quintilian’s Hexameter has the advantage of identifying all aspects of a task to be accomplished, an objective or a dysfunction. By collecting factual information that defines each aspect of the objective or problem, we give ourselves the keys to defining priority actions to achieve the objective or resolve the problem.
The questioning method
The questions that make up this tool are as follows.
Who ?
By whom? For whom? With whom ?
The actors involved. Managers, collaborators, witnesses, targets.
What ?
What is the problem, the objective to be achieved or the action to be taken?
The problem itself. The results of this problem, its symptoms and the initial objectives impacted by this dysfunction.
Or ?
From where? To where? The place(s) concerned. It could be a city, a company department, a website or social network. Any identifiable physical or virtual space.
When ?
Since when? Until when? The date of the event, its duration and frequency of occurrence.
How ?
What conditions? The material means and procedures which caused the problem or which will enable the action to be carried out or the objective to be achieved.
How much ?
What budget? What volume? What cost? How many times? The quantities involved and the amount of the budget impacted.
For what ?
What objective? What purpose? What cause? What are the goals the action to be taken or the resolution of the problem. It may be a global objective that one wishes to achieve such as carrying out an action plan, a desire to produce more, to increase one’s popularity, to correct an error, to improve a situation, etc. .
