At the beginning of every workshop we teach, we ask participants to briefly self-assess their thinking and communication skills. Not surprisingly, more than 60% cite the following as their personal Achilles heel: “communicating clearly and concisely at the speed of conversation.” Answering questions that others ask us during meetings isn’t always easy. Anxiety can surface: We may worry that our comments could hurt a colleague’s feelings or be perceived as insensitive. We may worry that … [Read more...]
Building Confidence
Preparing for Review Meetings
This Skill Sharpener summarizes what most leaders expect in review meetings, and how you can best prepare for them. It also answers a question that was asked by a senior manager who recently attended a Discover Your Best Thinking with Precision Q+A workshop: “Sometimes I say ‘That's a great question' before I answer questions. Should I be more direct and just answer?" It depends on whether you are in a review meeting or a collaborative problem-solving meeting. Read on to learn more about … [Read more...]
Conquering the fear of the stupid question
Ever catch yourself saying something like, "I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but..."? We all use mindless preambles, usually without thinking about the impact on our credibility. But as with many things in Precision Q+A, preambles can become more precise and powerful. A preamble is a short statement preceding a question, that makes our intent or motivation clear. Preambles are useful because they defuse a potentially awkward moment (such as the worry about a "stupid" question) and they do … [Read more...]
Creating a community of practice
Learning any set of skills requires sharing our experiences, ideally with others who are also using the skills. Precision Q+A teaches sophisticated cognitive skills that grow over time and through practice. We can deliberately enhance our capabilities by participating in communities with others who are practicing as well—what cognitive anthropologists call "communities of practice." These communities help knowledge workers in domains ranging from managers to surgeons and engineers to artists. … [Read more...]
The art of the follow-up question
As a student of Precision Questioning and Answering you have probably noticed that inquiry deepens conversations, sometimes in unexpected ways. This month we had lunch with an executive from a semiconductor company, we'll call him Ted. In the middle of our Moroccan chicken salads, Ted asked a direct, and very precise, question: "What class of problems does Precision Q+A help solve?" … [Read more...]
The art of questionstorming
Most of us are already familiar with brainstorming, a technique for generating new ideas as rapidly as possible, without stopping to judge or discuss them. The theory behind brainstorming is that genuinely creative ideas often look silly or useless at first, so we need tools that help us suspend disbelief and keep us focused on generating fresh ideas, one after another. … [Read more...]