Quality Questions Reveal Quality Information
In 1970, Barbara Walters wrote a book titled “How to Talk to Practically Anyone about Practically Anything.” She says it was intended to help people start conversations and break the ice. These days, the questions can apply to networking, sales and casual conversations.
The book ended with a chapter titled “When All Else Fails-Twenty Sure-Fire Conversation Starters.” Walters, a pioneering woman in broadcast news, knows plenty about asking quality and thought-provoking questions. She says she still uses the following timeless questions in her interviews today. Consider your own responses.
1. If you were not doing the work you are doing now, what would you most like to be doing?
2. If you could live in any time in history, when would you have wished to live?
3. If you could be any person in history, who would it be?
4. If you were suddenly given a million dollars and told you had to spend it just on yourself, what is the first thing you would buy?
5. If you were hospitalized for three months but not really too sick—whom-and it can’t be a relative- would you want in the next bed?
You can gain insight into people’s personalities, interests, values and challenges by asking quality questions. On the list above, I thought my answers were pretty good, until I heard my husband’s responses.
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