Question Your Questions
Learn To Use Open End Questions
Why do you ask the questions you ask?
Why do you ask he questions you ask? Most likely, it’s because you were taught to ask questions in order to receive information. Unfortunately, the majority of us are trained at an early age to ask closed questions, and never break the habit.
Closed Questions or Open Questions
Whether you have children of your own, or you borrow some, observe how most people speak to children. In many cases, a dialogue with a child can sound something like this:
“Are you having a good day? Do you like soup? Does it hurt? Do you know you could have hurt yourself? Did you do your homework? Are you ready for your test? Do you like school?”
There may be a few open questions interspersed in the mix like, “What is your favorite sport or subject in school?” However, the majority of conversations are closed.
Why do we do this to kids? I’m not a child psychologist, but if I were to guess it is because we don’t give children enough credit for their intellect. We fail to stretch children’s minds. In our attempt to love, we don’t want them to feel uncomfortable when they do not know the answer to a question, much less understand the question.
Closed Questions
As most people mature they spend their youthful lives listening to adults formulate closed questions. It is safe to say we are a product of our upbringing and environment.
Does this mean we cannot alter bad habits we’ve learned in life? Absolutely not!
Am I saying that closed questions are wrong? Not exactly.
Closed questions have their place in human communication especially when we are attempting to diagnose a problem or pinpoint a specific
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July 4, 2009 |
