Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1026 - Conversations - Be Question Driven

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250494

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1026 - Conversations - Be Question Driven

Hi Mom,

So, I have mentioned before that I subscribe to many newsletters. I am sharing content here from one of them. e180's We Seek newsletter.

It's always an informative collection of curated articles related to learning. As the site proclaims: "Every couple of weeks, we release a digital issue of We Seek that assembles interviews and learnings for individuals, organizations, events and our greater Human community."

There's always thought provoking content, such as "There is a big difference between education as something that’s being done to you in comparison to learning, as something you can only do to yourself, no matter how hard anyone else tries to teach you. You just can’t help a flower to grow by pulling on it, as they say."

This quote connects to something I was recently teaching the class room in examining Paulo Friere's "banking" concept of education from The Pedagogy of the Oppressed and an article by Mark Edmundson from Harper’s Magazine: ON THE USES OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students. Both writings question the nature of education versus learning much like the quote above and conclude that learning happens in a participatory and communicative process NOT as a system of information dump deposits or a TV show, as one of my favorite professors of all time -- Robert Trenary at WMU -- said all the time: "I am not your TV."

I have always been fond of questions. This is the secret to conversation. People like to talk about themselves and the things that interest them. If you ask enough questions and can draw out responses, then great conversations happen.

Questions are powerful as a process to drive idea creation and work in the world, but a process must be in place to generate better questions as the text here relates. Read on.

I also like the extra links -- especially the Ursula K. LeGuin one -- exploring listening, collaboration, and innovation through conversation.

This stuff may not be all my content, but there is GREAT content here that's very useful and edifying.

Thanks for stopping by.

from - e180 - No.72

e180 is a social business from Montreal that seeks to unlock human greatness by helping people learn from each other. We are the inventors of braindates—intentional knowledge sharing conversations between people, face-to-face. Since 2011, e180 has helped thousands of humans harness the potential of the people around them, and we won't stop until we reach millions.

Conversations • Be Question Driven

As soon as you start getting interested in learning at work, in careers, you start finding articles, books, and conferences on skills, on the future of work, on ways for workers to stay relevant in a changing marketplace and, soon, working alongside more automation and AIs. What are some of those skills? What are some things one can work on to be better equipped in such an environment? Or even, what are some “meta skills”? Things one can be better at to help them in acquiring those other future-ready skills?

As is the case with many of those aptitudes, one thing to do is look back at what makes us uniquely human, what can’t be automated, what can be useful in a broad spectrum of jobs. In this issue and the next, we are looking at something we do every day, yet for most of us remains unexplored, unperfected. Conversations.

What is the importance of conversations? What kinds of jobs, companies, projects, tasks can be made clearer, better, more innovative by simply talking and listening? By having clear, open, trusting conversations? The better question might be; which doesn’t? Are there any workplaces where better communication, more meaningful conversations, better questions, aren’t masterful tools to yield? We’re guessing there aren’t many.

source - BE QUESTION DRIVEN - MEDIUM

Be Question Driven

“We often learn through conversations with others. They say ‘the best way to learn is to teach,’ which can usually be understood to mean that in the process of organizing your thoughts to explain something you know, you discover more; you progress, you learn yourself. It is much the same way with questions, formulating one to draw out a good answer, is a form of learning and, of course, so is the answer itself.”

SOME SNIPPETS FROM THE MEDIUM ARTICLE:

Be Curious

Curiosity is one of the most useful ‘skills’ to have and develop, it’s how you can be a lifelong learner and keep advancing in your work and interests. And, as Ian Sanders put it; “All it takes is a commitment to ask questions, to explore new possibilities, to embark on a journey of discovery.” Be open to the new, be humble, don’t hesitate to say “I don’t know,” take notes, sketch, write, share. Cultivate the three types of curiosity; diversive, epistemic, and empathic.

Finally, is empathic curiosity. This curiosity makes us wonder about the thoughts and feelings of other people. Empathic curiosity is a conscious practice. As Leslie said, “Diversive curiosity might make you wonder what a person does for a living; empathic curiosity makes you wonder why they do it.”
 — Paul Jun / Ian Leslie

Better Questions

The art, and acceptance of, asking questions should be something we all think about and work on. In today’s workplaces, there is an emphasis on developing critical thinking, on being creative and innovative, on becoming better collaborators. All of these can be accelerated by asking good questions. In fact, it’s essential. Challenge the established and think critically by probing and questioning; to create something new, understand the existing; to collaborate, understand who you are working with.

ALSO FROM THE NEWSLETTER - 

Explorations

Telling Is Listening: Ursula K. Le Guin on the Magic of Real Human Conversation “Yet something impels us to hold these possibilities in both hands and go on surrendering to the beauty and terror of conversation, that ancient and abiding human gift. And the most magical thing, the most sacred thing, is that whichever the outcome, we end up having transformed one another in this vulnerable-making process of speaking and listening.” Mastering the Art of Collaboration Through Conversation Suarez explains that we should start seeing collaboration as having a series of conversations, in person and online. We can then stop worrying that we are spending too much time collaborating; instead we can start understanding everyone’s needs and changing our mindset to realize that collaboration is not only “a physical activity happening while we are at the office, but mostly a state of mind.” How Conversation Dinners revolutionize the ways we communicate On the thinking, organizing, and wonderfulness of conversation dinners, where random people meet one on one to discuss a menu of questions on thought-provoking topics. “When two people talk with mutual respect and listen with a real interest in understanding another point of view, when they try to put themselves in the place of another, to get inside their skin, they change the world, even if it is only by a minute amount, because they are establishing equality between two human beings.” Reengineer Your Conversations To Be More Innovative How conversations, the meeting of minds, can propel creativity and innovation. With examples from Bo Diddley and Fats Domino, to the B-52 bomber, to Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. “Conversations have the power to short-circuit time, to share tacit knowledge that is not to be found in reference books, or online; to change the world, or at least the way we think about the world.” Celeste Headlee: 10 ways to have a better conversation An old favourite of ours. Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. 10 useful rules for having better conversations.

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you, Mom.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 1028 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1804.27 - 10:10

NEW (written 1708.27) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom.