Download Desert Island Questions
When I was a wee lad, I drove others nuts by asking questions. They were, I am told, good open ones usually starting “…. but, why?” As time passed, I grew into a know-it-all teen and forgot about asking questions, more intent on doing the telling. Now at age 40 and in my role as a commercial mediator, I seem to have come full circle and once again appreciate the value of the well-timed, well-constructed question aimed at the essence of a discussion.
So what are my all-time favourites? What questions do I ask that make people sit back in their chairs, audibly exhale, rub their foreheads and say “…. gee, that’s a really good question to ask me…I’ve never had to look at it like that before…”. When they do of course, the glow of being a MARVAL (mediator adding real value at last) warms me to the point where I inevitably ask just that one question too many and I descend, once again, into that mediator’s fog of ‘where the hell are we’ that we all come to know so well.
