Questions reveal where assumptions were doing unpaid work.

Assumptions are invisible because they operate as background rather than as claims. A good question drags one into the light and asks it to justify itself, which is why questions can feel disruptive even when they are gentle. Most stuck situations contain at least one assumption nobody has examined.

When something will not move, ask what everyone involved is taking for granted. List the things nobody has questioned: that it must be done this way, that the deadline is fixed, that the person meant what you think. Test one. Frequently the whole problem was resting on it.