Business
In this second installment of a two-part episode, we revisit the idea of the power of a well-posed question. This time around, we explore how useful they are to influence people and implement solutions. As consultants, we are regularly asked by our clients to help them solve their most pressing problems. Part of that work is achieved in asking the right questions (which we tackled in Part I), but also in helping build support - what some in our biz call buy-in - for the solutions themselves. In other words, questions help us execute the answer as much as they enable us to arrive at them. How does that happen, exactly? Questions help you both understand the concerns of other people, but also signal that they are being understood. It’s in unpacking the underlying motivations of people - and especially what drives their resistance to the change that you’re proposing - that questions are most useful in influencing the results you are seeking to achieve. Agree? Or not convinced? Either way, tune in for a surprisingly lively discussion about how you have to ask to receive, achieve and even make people believe that the solutions you are suggesting are worth it. Along the way, we manage to name check Kim Kardashian (Mike’s contribution to the conversation) and Abraham Lincoln (Ion) in the same breath. You have to play it back to find out how that played out …