Ask Powerful Questions: Create Conversations That Matter

Ask Powerful Questions by Will Wise and Chad Littlefield is an insightful and transformative book that, while originally written for an academic or professional setting, offers valuable tools for anyone looking to improve communication and connection. The audio version of this book is where it truly shines. Will Wise and Chad Littlefield, the co-founders of We and Me, Inc., bring the content to life with their engaging narration and thoughtful explanations. Their passion for fostering meaningful conversations is palpable, and they do an amazing job breaking down the concepts in a way that feels personal and relatable. Their conversational tone makes the content accessible and impactful, even for those outside academic circles. I highly recommend Ask Powerful Questions in its audiobook format. Whether you're a leader, educator, or simply someone who wants to connect more deeply with others, this is a must-listen!

This in outstanding book that walks you through several examples and tools. I operate a consulting practice that relies heavily on posing powerful, thought provoking questions. This book helped me tremendously. Posing questions and then deeply listening to the response is a critical, but learnable skill for in every relationship.

Ask Powerful Questions is a thoughtful, insightful, and very personal account from the author of his diverse experiences and lessons learned on his many (mis?)adventures climbing up the ‘powerful questions pyramid.’ He shares his hard-won wisdom through revealing personal stories of numerous attempts to establish genuine connections with others by mindfully practicing intention, rapport, openness, listening, and empathy. Along the way, he presents some familiar concepts in novel, imaginative ways to highlight useful distinctions. For example: How would you react if you witnessed a friend suddenly fall through the thin ice on a frozen lake in winter? This not-so-implausible scenario is used to discuss apathy, sympathy, and empathy; how they differ; and how they affect the dynamics and character of connecting with others. With earned humility and uncommon generosity, the author is quick to share his own plentiful failures. I’m sure they are there to remind readers of the importance of struggling well when dealing with their own beautiful mistakes. (Beautiful in their teaching value, that is.) Mistakes and missteps are inevitable, after all, when pursuing mastery. And let’s be clear, MASTERY is certainly what is being described here--as a journey, not a destination. But importantly, this is not mastery OVER others, but rather mastery WITH them (this is an evolved form of power that ‘servant leaders’ understand well and use to great effect), where EVERYONE is enriched and supported by deeper personal connections that can only be built on a foundation of genuine curiosity, meaningful conversations, and well-crafted questions. As a researcher, writer, and speaker on ‘conscious’ leadership and creative collaboration; I recognize the profound value of crafting conversations that matter. The deep and durable interpersonal connections that are formed from asking powerful questions are the necessary psychological/emotional scaffolding required by high-performing teams. Whether in ‘industrial making’ (e.g., agile software development teams) or ‘artful making’ (e.g., ensembles of performing artists), effective leadership/collaboration requires curiosity, connection, co-creation, character, culture, and community. ALL six of these essential pillars are built, bolstered, and expanded through the art (and many soulful rewards) of asking powerful (a.k.a., beautiful) questions.

The goal of this book is to teach readers to ask questions that will require the listener to think and respond with fresh and new answers. The book is organized to discuss intention, rapport, openness, listening and empathy. The base for good conversation is to understand the intention. The author uses excellent examples through out the book, including why intention is the base of all good communication, understanding intention allows one to solve and address the key issues not necessarily what the people will find easy to address with a simple or evasive answer. Overall, I enjoyed the book and found it helpful. The introduction was a big long and wordy, but once the author got the meat of the matter it was well paced. Ali Julia review

This book was incredibly impactful. APQ is a one of only a few books that sit on my desk for frequent reference. Examples of good questions, sidebars with research, and an obsession with being genuine is what made this book so good. I have found myself changing the way I engage with those around me and the way I engage with strangers. I have a set of the We! Connect Cards on their way and look forward to using them. Thank you Will and Chad for your work in this space! The biggest takeaway: “On average, adults ask six-twelve questions per day.” It’s time to be more curious.

I thought this author gave some useful information but this book could have been rented….

I enjoyed reading this great book about how to connect with others authentically. I learned so much about myself in an effort to learn more about others. I am looking forward to experimenting with the techniques and ideas presented in the book. The author is spreading a message of love, connection, and healing at a time when it appears that the world needs it most! Update one week later: I made a woman cry today using the techniques I learned in this book. Reflective listening did it! Instead of trying to "fix" her problem, I just listened and reflected back to her, and that made all the difference. When we parted ways, she said, "Thank you for listening," as she touched her ear at the same time. How's that for a testimonial! Yeah!

Will Wise explique de manière très simple, illustrée par de nombreuses anecdotes, comment entrer en contact avec les autres de manière sincère, comment créer des échanges fructueux et developper vos relations. Le tout commence, selon sa méthode, par le fait de savoir poser des questions qui appellent des réponses riches en contenu. Ce livre est pour toutes les personnes qui comprennent l'anglais, aime travailler sur leur rapport aux autres et ont ne démarche méthodique.

Ich plane arbeitsbedingt immer wieder Workshops mit unterschiedlichsten Personengruppen. Zuletzt handelte es sich um eine herausforderne Situation in der ich wusste, dass es zwischenmenschliche Spannungen im Team gibt und die Mitarbeiter kaum einen Zugang zueinander finden. Daher erschienen mir, die sonst üblichen Ice-Breaker als absolut unpassend bis hin zu übergriffig für Leute die keinen Zugang zueinander haben. Bei meinen Recherchen bin ich dann auf Chad und sein Buch gestoßen und es ist für mich ehrlich ein Game Changer, der akzeptiert, dass es auch Menschen gibt die keine Kinderspiele brauchen oder mögen und dann eher dicht machen als partizipieren und dass Opener für Workshops und Meetings eine Verbindung zwischen Leuten und Basis für das Thema bilden können. Das Buch gibt dazu noch mehr Anreize und Ideen und ist dabei einfach verständlich und beschreibt mit vielen Beispielen worum es dem Autor geht.

This book opened another path in the midst of building conversations that Matter. Easy and productive reading for all those interested to put more Heart into the world

Curiosity, Empathy, Non-judgmental attitude, and love for others are key to acceptance of each other and togetherness.

This gives very good insight for how to interact with new people. You have to identify common things/ thoughts to connect with people. Very good book for facilitators and trainers.