Questions Will Get You Where Answers Won't

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Questions Will Get You Where Answers Won't

The other day I was talking with someone about a start up idea.  He is a very successful sales person and wanted my view on the concept.  As we moved on with the discussion I realized that there were some strategic holes in his plan which I wanted to point out. What I had not realized, however, is that he had bought into the idea lock, stock, and barrel and only wanted to hear me echo his feelings. The same day my wife was unsuccessfully trying to explain to her friend that unlike what she thought, their common friend's behavior was not affrontary. A few days earlier, I was telling my wife to give up the idea of trying to go to India in November when the chances of getting certain things done on time was practically impossible but it was a completely futile exercise.

You know what I am driving at – situations where you try hard to make someone see reason but feel as if you are banging your head against a wall. I mentioned a few incidents where I was the one banging my head against a wall, but am sure people who know me can point out similar situations where I played the wall.

Now these “not so uncommon” interactions are not limited between friends and family members, they are an integral part of how the human mind works. Maybe it’s something to do with some kind of self-preserving instinct. I don’t know for sure, but what I do know is that we all get caught up with our own ideas so much so that we do not see, or want to see what is obvious to others. The numbers driven corporate world has also had to bear the brunt of executives not seeing through the logic of well prepared advisors and forging ahead bull-headedly with their convictions to the detriment of their organizational goals.