(Written 9/22/21)
I find myself often posing questions to people with options built in. Already not a great practice. But even worse, I often pose the available options as a dichotomy – two opposing realities.
“How’d you sleep last night? Sleep ok or were you up a lot?”
This struck me yesterday. I’m going to start listening for dichotomies in my language and in others’, whether in asking questions or in thinking/speaking about anything else. That should immediately be a ponder point. An assumption exists everywhere we think we’ve already considered all the options. What if there’s another way to look at something or understand it? What if there are many more ways?
-LS
I chuckled reading this.
I think you’re right. Like a great interviewer should stay silent and not interject so as to let the guest think out their words, perhaps it is better to let the askee parse out all the available options of answer for themselves.
You’re absolutely right. This is something I’m going to continue working on.
-LS