Yesterday, I emphasized the importance of really listening when you are trying to be persuasive. Today I wanted to talk about the skill of asking good questions with my kids. We can’t get to the heart of someone’s opinions unless we are really prepared to ask questions so we can hear their voice. Sometimes the questions might be to gather the information you need to understand their perspective. Sometimes the questions are there to probe them to think things through more and lead them to different conclusions. You are wanting to be persuasive because you are convinced of a truth that might benefit another person. Being able to help them reach their own conclusion through careful questions will always be more effective than you persuading through fancy words. Lawyers are often effective not because of their convincing reasoning but because of the questions they are able to carefully ask.
Today I wanted to teach them some of the art of asking questions. This game wasn’t necessarily helpful in teaching them persuasiveness directly, but it is working on building the foundations for the future. Developmentally, I think they are probably still too young to be able to be persuasive through asking questions and thinking completely logically, but they can learn the importance of asking questions. The game was simple. I hid something in the room. They could ask leading questions to try and find the thing I had hidden. They quickly learned that asking the right questions can be an effective way of reaching a solution. They had a lot of fun too, wanting to take turns hiding the object. Sorry I didn’t snap any pictures.
Today I wanted to teach them some of the art of asking questions. This game wasn’t necessarily helpful in teaching them persuasiveness directly, but it is working on building the foundations for the future. Developmentally, I think they are probably still too young to be able to be persuasive through asking questions and thinking completely logically, but they can learn the importance of asking questions. The game was simple. I hid something in the room. They could ask leading questions to try and find the thing I had hidden. They quickly learned that asking the right questions can be an effective way of reaching a solution. They had a lot of fun too, wanting to take turns hiding the object. Sorry I didn’t snap any pictures.
