MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS
Cultivating curiosity and conversations that matter
BECOME INSATIABLY CURIOUS
How can I retrain my brain to ask evocative questions—of myself and others?
LEARN
On her Dare to Lead podcast, Brene Brown talks with Michael Bungay Stanier about "taming our Advice Monsters – you know, that insatiable thing that fuels our need to offer advice and answers when curiosity and good questions are way more powerful."
In this TEDxYouth talk, Ray Wu talks about the benefits of being curious and shares three tips on how to introduce curiosity into our lives.
Margaret Wheatley reflects on how to become more curious
PRACTICE
The "next time you're stuck on a challenge or opportunity," Hal Gregersen offers practical tools to try to "recast your problems in valuable new ways."
Warren Berger's blog about harnessing the power of inquiry to make better choices
A list of questions for leaders to ask, organized by purpose/function, from Insights Assessment
EXTEND
Michael Bungay Stanier’s book unpacks essential coaching questions to demonstrate how you can develop coaching methods that produce great results.
Hal Gregerson’s book about the “conditions that give rise to catalytic questions—and breakthrough insights—and how anyone can create them.”
TUNE UP COMMUNICATION
What are the most common communication shortcomings of leaders? How can I overcome them?
LEARN
Often the success of communication is hampered by our unconscious cognitive biases, from VeryWellMind
From the TED stage, "Lorna Davis explains how our idolization of heroes is holding us back from solving big problems -- and shows why we need "radical interdependence" to make real change happen."
EXTEND
The authors of this article from the Mitchell Hamline Law Review substantiate the argument that "It is possible to cultivate a better environment within which our public conversations can grow."
Former FBI Agent Joe Navarro talks about how to convey and detect nonverbal messages
EMBRACE PRODUCTIVE CONFLICT
What is productive conflict? How can I create space for it on my team?
PRACTICE
Why and how to take your team beyond the culture of "nice," from Learning Forward
A step-by-step approach to productive confrontation from the book 'Fierce Conversations'
A protocol from School Reform Initiative to "see where people stand on difficult issues that need decisions"
EXTEND
This book by New York Times Bestselling authors Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler offers tools for having crucial conversations, when the stakes are high.