Words are magic. Watch.
Abracadabra.
My favorite example, tho, has to do with how re-framing a question can break through the noise and allow for helpful, even insightful, responses.
There’s one particular trick that’s always a hoot to deploy. I first learned it as a Literature Instructor at Harvey Mudd College’s Upward Bound program.
Often, students respond to teacher questions in class with a reluctant, “I don’t know.”
The typical teacher reaction is to move on to the next student. But, I learned, if the teacher instead responds with: “What would you say if you did know the answer?” sometimes surprising and true answers follow, almost as if out of nowhere.
What does this demonstrate?
On the teaching side, there’s more than one way to ask a question in order to get a desired response. If your questions aren’t getting the types of responses you want, re-examine the question. There’s likely a better way to ask it.
On the student side, we sometimes close ourselves to the prospect of internal discovery…out of fear of being wrong or seen as wrong or ignorant or deficient. But what if you did know the answer but simply didn’t give yourself the mental time and space to articulate it? This is one reason good teachers are important. We facilitate discovery.
I’m thinking about this today because I recently used this big brown mind trick on a CVS cashier to remarkable success. I rushed into the store, headed straight to the cashier and asked if they carried paper name tag stickers thingies (I was sure to include every seo term). To my chagrin and befuddlement, she said, “No.”
No? OK. But if you did carry them, which aisle would they be on?
“6.”
