“You’ve got to watch for what you don’t want to see and listen for what you don’t want to hear.”
– John Madden
Perhaps it goes beyond just watching and listening, though. When we probe, we take a faster path to the truth — or at the very least we get to the facts much more quickly. While the truth is always our preferred end state, a basis in facts is a decent neighborhood in which to put down roots. When we are in possession of facts, we make better decisions. We know where to practice, where to re-focus, where to cut bait and where to hunt big game.
Questioning for what we don’t want to hear gets us to bad news, or potential bad news, much sooner. And that’s good because bad news does not get better over time.
Too often, though, we don’t really want to know… A golfing buddy of mine often asks, “Am I the worst putter you’ve ever seen?” (He is.) Every time, I reply by saying, “You should never ask a question to which you don’t want to hear the answer.”
I don’t believe that, though.
We must ALWAYS ask questions we might not want to hear the answer to. We must always look for the body language, the sudden (or gradual) change in behavior or the loss of ability to make eye contact, and we must probe to determine what’s behind them. Otherwise, we’ll risk complacency and detachment, two “icky” (technical term) conditions. Otherwise, we’ll risk getting surprised, and there is no such thing as a good surprise!
The more questions we ask, the fewer surprises we encounter!
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