Rick Baker Thought Posts
Left Menu Space Holder

About the author

Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

E-mail me Send mail
Follow me LinkedIn Twitter

Search

Calendar

<<  November 2024  >>
MoTuWeThFrSaSu
28293031123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
2526272829301
2345678

View posts in large calendar

Recent Comments

Comment RSS

Stories & Questions

by Rick Baker
On Aug 18, 2010
People like to hear stories.
 
I bet this dates back to the early caveman-hunter days.
 
In those days they didn’t have iPads and I’m pretty sure they didn't even have books. So, some hairy fellow, all beaten up and scarred would arrive at his cave after a hard day chasing sabre-tooth tigers and other such creatures, beating them into submission, and dragging them home for the clan dinner.
 
And, of course, everyone wanted to hear the story behind the huge, charred racks of ribs. So, the proud hunter would share the story of the day. Everyone would get full and get entertained. Then they would fall asleep beside the safety of the fire. The next morning, they would wake up and tackle a new day…another day, another huge beast to cook.
 
At some point, cave folks didn’t completely follow the hunters’ stories. So, they started asking questions. That was a pivotal point in human pre-history. The story tellers learned how to delve into the details. Also, they noticed certain stories and certain details generated more interest and more excitement amongst the cave-crowd. They concentrated on these types of stories with a win-win attitude.
 
Every once in a while one of the cave people would ask a really bad question and the story teller would bonk him with a tree-branch club. This helped the cave community develop guidelines for fair and reasonable questions.
 
That's a prehistoric rendition of how storytelling and questioning began. Sure, there were stories before these exciting cave-hunter stories. There were cave-gatherer stories and questions and later cave-scavenger stories and questions. But, those stories lacked cave-pizzazz. No sizzle.
 
Like: "Blork... [I found some berries today.]" "Gluck... [where?]" "Mrunk... [over by the river.]"
 
Simply, not very exciting stuff.
 
But, when cave-living folks started telling hunting stories and asking hunting questions, well, that was magic.
 
That's when civilization took off.
 
As did evolution.
 
And, ever since those cave-days the hearts and imaginations of human beings have been captured by good stories and good questions.

Tags:

Beyond Business | Questions?: The Art of Asking Good Questions

Comments (1) -

Rick Baker Canada
8/21/2010 5:19:52 PM #

Successful leaders tend to be able to tell better stories.
Successful sales people tend to be able to tell better stories.
Successful marketing people tend to be able to tell better stories.

Successful leaders tend to be able to ask better questions.
Successful sales people tend to be able to ask better questions.
Successful marketing people tend to be able to ask better questions.

The same can be said about close friends, successful recruiters, successful teachers, etc.

Pingbacks and trackbacks (1)+

Add comment

biuquote
Loading

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.