Hello! It’s time for Key #4. We’ve covered a lot so far and I wonder how you’re getting on with putting the ideas into practice? Please be sure and let me know in the comments. In a way, Talk Nua is all about practising more mindful communication. Not always easy in our busy lives but the positive intention is important! This week it’s all about questions: Killer Questions that stop a conversation dead in its tracks.

Oh how us grown ups LOVE questions! Here are some common ones:
• What did you do today?
• How was school?
• Did you have fun?
• Where did you go?
• How was it?
• Do you want dessert?
• Did you like your pizza?

Then there is the dead end after school conversation starting something like this:
Parent: So how was school today?
Child: Fine
Parent: What did you do?
Child: Nothing/ stuff

What has happened here to kill the conversation? It’s the pesky killer questions that only leave space for a yes or no answer at the least or a one word answer at best. Let’s see how it works:
• Q: What did you do today? A: Nothing special
• Q: How was school? A: Fine
• Q: Did you have fun? A: Yes/No
• Q: Where did you go? A: Nowhere

• Q: How was it? A: Fine
• Q: Do you want desert? A: Yes/No
• Q: Did you like your pizza?A: Yes/No

So, what to do about it? It’s hard to get out of the killer question rut. Sometimes it can feel like all you do is ask is killer questions- they just keep coming out!

This week’s challenge
• Pick a particular situation like school pick up.
• The first step is to listen to yourself and work out what
kinds of questions you ask and what kind of answer you tend
to get.
• If you’re not happy with the answer then it’s time to try
something different- I’ll cover these in the next post.

Report your favourite killer question(s) in the comments below. And if you like this post, please pass it on to someone else who might like it too. Thank you!

Be sure and check out the next post for how to turn those killer questions into conversation starters.

Let’s get talking!