A questioning mindset will take you a long way down the road to generative communication. Thinking in terms of questions rather than answers is a good way to keep an open mind about critical, often divisive issues. Questions tend to beget more questions, and often have more than one legitimate answer depending on who’s asking, who’s answering, and when. Actively seeking information through probing questions invariably makes us smarter as we search for reasonable answers to complex challenges—together.
Seek Personal Growth
Questioning our own assumptions and steadfast beliefs keeps us honest with ourselves and others. Are we closed to new thinking that contradicts our own? What can we learn about ourselves as we “question” and “listen to” what our feelings of anger, resentment, excitement or appreciation are telling us when we communicate with others? Our internal questions help us take off our invisible blinders and strengthen our understanding of ourselves, others, and the mutual challenges we encounter.
Tame The Ego to Discover
Sometimes knowing the answers instead of asking questions helps us feel confident about ourselves and our worthiness, often in the presence of others whose favor we value. Human nature tempts us to declare certainty rather than question a belief to which we’re emotionally attached. Applying the “principle of charity,” a 2000-year-old philosophy that assumes value in another’s perspective for the sake of discovery and learning, helps us moderate our ego’s need to immediately know the answers.
Strengthen Trust
There is nothing more enlivening than exploring an issue with others through questions! Who has a stake in what is happening in this situation? What’s going on underneath the surface of what we are seeing and hearing? Help me understand; how did you get to that interpretation the situation? Debates that avoid competing for the “right” answers can build knowledge and trust among everyone involved. Asking and answering questions together deepens mutual understanding of a situation while enriching collective energy for generating new ideas.
Never Stop
Living in a spirit of inquiry—thinking in terms of questions and possibilities—bumps us off our pedestal of certainty and keeps us learning our way forward. Further, seeking to expand our understanding of ourselves, others and the complex worlds we share tends to attract people who share a similar questioning mindset for generating workable solutions to complex challenges.
Together, we’re bound to make a difference!
Asking Questions is one of five a portals to a Generative Communication mindset, a revolutionary new way of thinking about how we interact with ourselves, each other, our circumstances and the natural world which is vital for sustained life.
Discover the power of Generative Communication.