Leadership is Language: Converting Binary Questions
These are notes from L. David Marquet’s book: Leadership is Language. The first set of notes start at understanding Red & Blue.
How do we go from a binary question to a collaborative one? One that engages with the receiver and not have them automatically reply with a “yes”?
What I have found that helps me is to practice.
Whenever I find myself asking a binary “yes/no” question, I step back and re-think how can I make this into a collaborative question.
Here’s my attempt in changing questions from earlier into a collaborative version:
| Binary Question | Possible Collaborative Version |
|---|---|
| Are you ready for school? | What’s left to do before school? |
| Did you wash your hands? | How recently did you wash your hands? |
| Was school fun? | What was fun at school today? |
| Did you see person at school? | How was person at school? |
| Did you play at school? | How was playing at school today? |
| Did the teacher give you homework? | How much homework did the teacher give? |
| Are you ready for bed? | Anything to do before sleep? |
How have you made the binary questions more collaborative? I’d love to hear about your version.
Next, I reflect on why I ask binary questions to my kids.