Teaching and mentoring in intelligence education: Preparing intelligence professionals for asking better questions

The questions intelligence professionals ask fundamentally shape their understanding of the problem, the research and analysis they undertake and, ultimately, the judgements and answers they arrive at. As educators, we do not know with certainty what future problems, challenges or opportunities each of our students will face. Instead, intelligence educators can best assist intelligence practitioners by helping them to develop deep-question asking and answering skills that allow them to adapt to future situations and challenges, whatever they might be. It is this question-asking and answering skill that best prepares intelligence practitioners with the ability to adapt and innovate in a complex and changing environment.