Great conversation is scarce. There are many impediments to it and, chief among them as the stakes go high, is the fear of failure (“What if I say something stupid?”).
It is easier to talk about the weather because –
1. It is nearly always too hot, too cold, too humid, or too dry. And occasionally, it is just perfect and makes us wonder how long it will last.
2. We can’t be wrong about the weather. It is out there for everyone to see.
I am not a fan of discussions around the weather. And, every once in a while when I feel the group might be open to changing the tone of the conversation, I ask one question – “What is something cool you learned in the past few week(s)?”
And, it works. I typically volunteer to get the ball rolling (thank you, dear blog, for always allowing me to be prepared). And, the conversation that follows is nearly always inspiring. That’s because we all have incredible insights about ourselves, our environments, and our lives sitting inside us. And, when we bring them out in the form of what we learnt, we invite others to build on what we’ve learnt and make the insight even more powerful. The other positive part is that focusing on what we learnt versus what happened to us means we can move the conversation from people and events to ideas. And, given we’re always one great idea from transforming ourselves, it never hurts to raise the bar.
So, if you’re wondering how to inspire great conversation, I hope you think about the “What is something cool you learned..” question.
A Learning a Day 