The fastest way to get the answer in a organization is to send a email/slack with a wildly inaccurate answer to the question no one wants to answer/respond to. It is even more effective when you attribute the wrong person to it. This is a anti-pattern but it does work.

"Hey everyone, I just heard the Phoenix Project that Jim is leading is going to be completed next week and will be under budget by $5m. I will go ahead and report that up to the VP in my 1x1 today"

You may look stupid but people will get really emotional and give you the real answer you need very quickly.

Because people like to contradict someone more than they like to help someone.

This is also a standard LEO interrogation technique.

"Well, son, your buddy just told us you killed her with a hammer."

"NO! It was an axe! I mean... oh, damn.."