Real thinking involves chewing on a compelling question. Powerful answers invoke cause and effect. Those answers have immediate implications as well as long-term consequences and both of those lead to actions.

Thinking is driven by questions. Questions are answered through the interaction of necessary assumptions, a fact base to which thinking is accountable, and—most of all—a conceptual framework. Conceptual frameworks harness the power of patterns to look for parallels that leverage past learning to solve present problems.

Every area of human endeavor is an outworking of a way of thinking. We all default to a particular way of thinking, usually without recognizing it. This episode is designed to help you be intentional about where your conclusions are coming from. The core of your thinking is the combination of point-of-view, motivation (what you are trying to accomplish with the thinking), and questions you think this perspective can help to answer.

Great conversations are driven by empathetic listening that
results in good questions. Good questions encourage the other person to open up and share. Good questions give the questioner an opportunity to learn from another person’s life experience. 

In this episode my guest, Laura from Asia, characterizes being a good questioner as showing hospitality in search of personal connection.