Stupid questions?
© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008
After witnessing a professor in the Audimax answering a student’s questions with a: “I do not answer stupid questions. Go home and learn the stuff!”. Mind you this was the first session and the students were freshmen… What do you think how many of the students felt like coming back—or asking questions?
I start all my seminars with explaining to the audience that there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers, and since I am giving the answers… A great way of breaking the ice and take away some of the fear of public humiliation many students have.
Very often you can experience that in meetings a valid question get’s used for a personal attack. And that’s the when tone and spirit changes.
We all have it experienced.
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After witnessing a professor in the Audimax answering a student’s questions with a: “I do not answer stupid questions. Go home and learn the stuff!”. Mind you this was the first session and the students were freshmen… What do you think how many of the students felt like coming back—or asking questions?
I start all my seminars with explaining to the audience that there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers, and since I am giving the answers… A great way of breaking the ice and take away some of the fear of public humiliation many students have.
Very often you can experience that in meetings a valid question get’s used for a personal attack. And that’s the when tone and spirit changes.
We all have it experienced.
But how often did we try to change the situation?
Did the manager stood up?
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