- Asking the right question is the most important job of a good leader. A good question can lead to new possibilities, can create something new in the world and can be the opening for authentic change. - Powerful questions are the ones where you become an actor as soon as you answer them. Even if you don't answer them you are in a way taking responsibility for your part in the conversation. - A great question has three qualities - It's ambiguous and requires everyone to bring their own meaning - It's personal and requires participants to be passionate and committed - It evokes anxiety since it's something that matters [[Ambiguity and Anxiety are Natural]] and these are hallmarks of a powerful question. - [[All Transformation is Linguistic]] and asking the right questions and starting the right conversation is what builds communities. --- Every community has its buildings, leaders, schools, landscape, but for the moment let us say that these are not what make a community unique or define its identity. Instead it is useful to declare that the aspect of a community that gives it a new possibility is simply the conversation it chooses to have with itself. - Peter Block in [[Community]] eaders are held to three tasks: to shift the context within which people gather, name the debate through powerful questions, and listen rather than advocate, defend, or provide answers. - Peter Block in [[Community]] A great question has three qualities: It is ambiguous. There is no attempt to try to precisely define what is meant by the question. This requires each person to bring their own, personal meaning into the room. It is personal. All passion, commitment, and connection grow out of what is most personal. We need to create space for the personal. It evokes anxiety. All that matters makes us anxious. It is our wish to escape from anxiety that steals our aliveness. If there is no edge to the question, there is no power. - Peter Block in [[Community]] For example, if we want to confront people’s willingness to join us as owners of this gathering, we ask, “How valuable an experience do you plan to have in this event?” This is distinguished from the question “How valuable an experience do you want to have?” or “How valuable an experience do you think it will be?” The distinction between “plan” and “want” or “think” is the difference between choice and wishful thinking or prediction. Wanting to have a good experience does not mean we choose it. We can make a prediction about how valuable the experience will be, but this puts us in the position of waiting to see what the world will provide us. There is no power in wanting or predicting; the power is in deciding. - Peter Block in [[Community]]