1. How do You Tie Your Shoes?

2. When did you learn to tie shoes that way?
2a. (If from when they were young) Why have you stuck with that method?
2b. (If from when they were older) why did you change the way you tied your shoes?
3. What are some criteria that could be used to evaluate the efficacy of tieing shoes to determine which method is best?
4. If you find a better way to tie your shoes, will you change? Explain.

I am not sure if there is a more mundane or seemingly trivial question to ask someone above the age of 6 than, "How do you tie your shoes?"

But if you think about it and ask some follow up questions like the ones I listed above, I have found that they can help paint a pretty comprehensive picture of the personality of the person responding.

You can learn a lot about: how detailed they are, how creative they are, how open minded they are, their critical reasoning skills, and many other things.

It isn't appropriate to break out in every interview, but when interviewing for senior management or executive positions it is a fun question to use to get to know the candidate much better.