Couldn’t we at least . . . ?” is a good way to get unstuck. It is a way to get past disagreement to form some consensus, as in, “Couldn’t we at least… - James E. Ryan

Good friends ask great questions, as do good parents. They pose questions that, just in the asking, show how much they know and care about you. They ask questions that make you pause, that make you think, that provoke honesty, and that invite a deeper connection. They ask questions that don’t so much demand an answer as prove irresistible. Posing irresistible questions, I believe, is an art worth cultivating.

And there is no greater gift to bestow on children than the gift of curiosity. Effective leaders, even great ones, accept that they don’t have all the answers. But they know how to ask the right questions — questions that force others and themselves to move past old and tired answers, questions that open up possibilities that, before the question, went unseen.

Just as asking “I wonder why?” will keep you curious about the world, asking “I wonder if?” will keep you engaged in the world. Nearly every adventure I have been on, and nearly every new thing I have tried, began with the question: “I wonder if I could do that?” The answers have not been uniform.