Have you noticed that we live in a work world that is consistently presenting us with a thorny communication challenge? Tasks are more complex, while people seem less able to focus. In the face of this challenge, how do you build your credibility and stand out as a thought leader? Revisit these cornerstone concepts from Precision Q+A: Crisp, clear, and concise. They will help you successfully present your best thinking, even in a distracted world. Speed is at a premium in our communication … [Read more...]
Skill Sharpener
Escape from unnecessary meetings with grace
We don’t mean to sound irreverent, but when was the last time you asked: “Do I need to be here?” Go/NoGo Questions are invaluable in helping us examine the bigger picture of how we use precious resources at work. Almost all of us feel like we have too many urgent things to do, too many meetings to attend, and too many channels of communication to monitor. So, we need to be asking ourselves and our colleagues more often: Do I need to be here? And do you? It is easy to work in a reactive mode, … [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...]
The Go/NoGo Question you need to ask today
Go/NoGo Questions are the ones we use to ask about the process of our thinking rather than the content. When we are constantly bombarded by IM, email, text messages, and social media feeds, on top of our typical day full of work, a new type of Go/NoGo Question jumps to the forefront: we call it the Mental Ecology Go/NoGo. The Go/NoGo category of questions is one of the most underutilized categories, because we become prisoners of our habitual reactions rather than active managers of our own time … [Read more...]
Stand-up meetings stand out with Precision Q+A
Unstructured meetings waste time and energy. Recent articles, like this one in the Wall Street Journal, document the growing popularity of "stand-up" meetings as a way to avoid the wasteful meetings of old. Just standing up, however, isn't the answer. Better meetings require better structure. Stand-up meetings offer some structural innovations that can help improve our workplace interactions. But meeting formats become even more powerful when they are combined with discussion formats that also … [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...]