Another practical example of this: When asking for ideas don’t give examples of the ideas. Today I asked someone for a list of various non-mammal animal prints. For clarification I used the examples of bird feathers and monarch butterflies. But I had already thought of those and was looking for more. It took a little while to get feathers, butterflies, and mammals out of her head. Once we had moved on, I got some great answers, but the beginning was tricky.
The annoying part for me was that I wouldn’t have spent any more time by just asking for animal prints and after she thought of mammals telling her, “We got those already, what else do you have?” Of course, I realized this one sentence too late. Ah well.
Yep. This is even more obvious with kids. Asking “What happened?” is much more likely to result in the truth than asking, “What happened? Did you hit him?”
Or, “How old are you?” versus, “How old are you? Are you five?”
On the other hand, if you want to use this to your advantage, you can ask, “Do you want fries with that?” Relatedly, a server friend of mine has noticed that the easiest way to get higher tabs is to start nodding when asking if they want extras.
If you look for this behavior in interviews you will do much better. It is surprising at how much the people interviewing you want you to succeed and how often they will prime the answers to the questions they are asking. (Or not, I guess, considering if you succeed than they take that as you are a valuable asset to their company...)
Another practical example of this: When asking for ideas don’t give examples of the ideas. Today I asked someone for a list of various non-mammal animal prints. For clarification I used the examples of bird feathers and monarch butterflies. But I had already thought of those and was looking for more. It took a little while to get feathers, butterflies, and mammals out of her head. Once we had moved on, I got some great answers, but the beginning was tricky.
The annoying part for me was that I wouldn’t have spent any more time by just asking for animal prints and after she thought of mammals telling her, “We got those already, what else do you have?” Of course, I realized this one sentence too late. Ah well.
“What’s their house number? Is it number 73?” ← never do this!
Yep. This is even more obvious with kids. Asking “What happened?” is much more likely to result in the truth than asking, “What happened? Did you hit him?”
Or, “How old are you?” versus, “How old are you? Are you five?”
On the other hand, if you want to use this to your advantage, you can ask, “Do you want fries with that?” Relatedly, a server friend of mine has noticed that the easiest way to get higher tabs is to start nodding when asking if they want extras.
If you look for this behavior in interviews you will do much better. It is surprising at how much the people interviewing you want you to succeed and how often they will prime the answers to the questions they are asking. (Or not, I guess, considering if you succeed than they take that as you are a valuable asset to their company...)