Questions from the Kayak

The way we ask questions really does impact how the person considers the situation. While it sounds cliche, when asked well, a good question gives the person pause to consider - what do I actually think about that?

Over the weekend, I was kayaking and the other person was paddle boarding. The paddle-boarder had flip flops on, and my first thought was: tell 'em to take off their shoes.

Before I said that, though, I paused, and thought about what question could I ask. I'm not a paddle boarder, and I don't know if its better to have shoes on or off.

Rather than suggest what do to through a question (as we often see happen), I asked something to the effect of:

'Does paddle boarding work better with or without shoes?'

I held back my assumptions, I was actually curious, and I left space for the paddle boarder to consider my question. The answer was what I thought, but I didn't lead into it, and the person didn't feel like I told them what to do, that they were doing the thing wrong....all of that.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱?