View From the Tree house
T.A. in T.W. (Today’s American in Today’s World)“Ask the “Dumb Questions”
Fear of asking questions is helping to ruin people and destroy our economy! "
“Each semester I have top MBAs do an exercise I designed that ruins them if they fear looking dumb.” Seth Freeman, a professor of negotiation and conflict management at New York University’s Stern School of Business and at Columbia University has the charm, jargon and complicated terms to con a third to a half of his students into fatal deals! “Worse, they don’t even realize they’ve been taken. They all say, “I got a good deal.”
Snippets from the professors article which appeared in USA Today, Tuesday, January 13th, ’09 sites examples. After stating that the fear of looking dumb can save students from serious traps (editors note-perhaps any students!), he continues:
@McLean of Fortune magazine asked Enron’s CEO, “How did Enron make money?” The CEO attacked, calling her an ill-prepared incompetent. . .
@Many people tragically invested in Madoff’s fraudulent firm without knowing what they were investing in. Reportedly, he threw out investors who asked questions. Few did. . .
@Many homeowners didn’t understand the consequences of resets in their mortgages, taking on debt they almost inevitably couldn’t repay. Unprincipled mortgage brokers and banks urged them on. Regulators praised complex and risky mortgaged-backed securities-economists and other experts still insisted in 2007 that markets were in great shape. Few understood; everyone acted as if he did . . .
Richard Feynman, a Nobel laureate, was once asked by a colleague to explain one of his ideas. He promised to create a basic “freshman lecture” about it. Days later, he reported that he couldn’t, which he added meant he didn’t understand the idea himself! Years later, his simple question during the Challenger probe cut through technocratic talk to reveal the critical flaw of the probe!
Simple questions like:
1. “Is this what you’re saying?”, reveals misunderstanding, overcomes jargon and demonstrates
good listening.
2. “What do I want and why?”, reveal interest you want satisfied, (but may like all of us need to
2. “What do I want and why?”, reveal interest you want satisfied, (but may like all of us need to
think through further. The question will help you and I perhaps think more deeply.)
3. “What if?”, reveals foreseeable problems.
4. “How do I know?”, reveals reliability problems and unfounded claims.
5. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Can you say that another way, please”, reveals more clearly
3. “What if?”, reveals foreseeable problems.
4. “How do I know?”, reveals reliability problems and unfounded claims.
5. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Can you say that another way, please”, reveals more clearly
what the other person is saying.
I wanted to close with the latter because these questions are all ones we may apply no matter the people or circumstances in our lives. In addition, Professor Freeman as a student of history, points out that we may learn from history and from the mistakes of history makers. The question I must ask myself is, am I learning and applying or am I just continuing to make the same mistakes as those I should be learning from?
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As an example, the day after the last blog published, the headlines from USA Today, read, “Obama Touts Gains and Goals- Defends bid to expand power to seize more than banks. In addressing his critics, one of whom includes, Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, a Democrat of North Dakota, who questioned the size and scope of Obama’s 3.6 trillion dollar budget plan, does our president answer the criticism? Read for yourselves! “Seizing more power” sounds frighteningly like events historically that we surely do not want repeated.
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PUP (People Under Pressure):
I will not be taking the fourth of the series of chemo this Tuesday, because blood tests reveal that my white count has not risen enough from last week. As a consequence, we’ll talk to one of our cancer doctors Thursday. He has proposed taking me off of this regiment of chemo, and becoming part of a study for “sarcoma” patients.
The problem we see at this point is that this regiment of chemo has produced good results and we don’t even know if I would qualify for this proposed study. In other words, again, we need to ask good probing questions!
We need prayer for wisdom as always. (Let us know how we can pray for you also.) We have also shared with him the pamphlet, For Your Joy which we’d like to hear his perspective on!
He is one of the most gracious, caring, and down-to-earth physicians we’ve come to know. We want to care about him and his colleagues Biblically.
____________________________________________
People under pressure need to celebrate birthdays and we are. Dear friends invited us to Danville’s Swing Choir and Auction Friday evening. What a treat and how delightful to hear an evening of really fun, relaxing, and encouraging music without innuendos and every reason to include the whole family. Kudos to everyone involved.
I was up around 2:00 this a.m. to finish this blog and prepare to have birthday breakfast with other friends. Then we were treated to a dinner at a friend's home
who is also sacrificing for us! How can we say thanks to precious friends and fam
ily? In them, 
God’s given us so much!
I wanted to close with the latter because these questions are all ones we may apply no matter the people or circumstances in our lives. In addition, Professor Freeman as a student of history, points out that we may learn from history and from the mistakes of history makers. The question I must ask myself is, am I learning and applying or am I just continuing to make the same mistakes as those I should be learning from?
_____________________________________________
As an example, the day after the last blog published, the headlines from USA Today, read, “Obama Touts Gains and Goals- Defends bid to expand power to seize more than banks. In addressing his critics, one of whom includes, Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, a Democrat of North Dakota, who questioned the size and scope of Obama’s 3.6 trillion dollar budget plan, does our president answer the criticism? Read for yourselves! “Seizing more power” sounds frighteningly like events historically that we surely do not want repeated.
_____________________________________________
PUP (People Under Pressure):
I will not be taking the fourth of the series of chemo this Tuesday, because blood tests reveal that my white count has not risen enough from last week. As a consequence, we’ll talk to one of our cancer doctors Thursday. He has proposed taking me off of this regiment of chemo, and becoming part of a study for “sarcoma” patients.
The problem we see at this point is that this regiment of chemo has produced good results and we don’t even know if I would qualify for this proposed study. In other words, again, we need to ask good probing questions!
We need prayer for wisdom as always. (Let us know how we can pray for you also.) We have also shared with him the pamphlet, For Your Joy which we’d like to hear his perspective on!
He is one of the most gracious, caring, and down-to-earth physicians we’ve come to know. We want to care about him and his colleagues Biblically.
____________________________________________
People under pressure need to celebrate birthdays and we are. Dear friends invited us to Danville’s Swing Choir and Auction Friday evening. What a treat and how delightful to hear an evening of really fun, relaxing, and encouraging music without innuendos and every reason to include the whole family. Kudos to everyone involved.
I was up around 2:00 this a.m. to finish this blog and prepare to have birthday breakfast with other friends. Then we were treated to a dinner at a friend's home
who is also sacrificing for us! How can we say thanks to precious friends and fam
ily? In them, 
God’s given us so much! 
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