Ask One More Question
The moment you think you know, you don’t.
It’s not necessarily that we can’t trust information. Rather, it’s that maintaining the posture of a learner always creates deeper connections and a fuller comprehension of an idea or person. As Adam Grant points out in Think Again, our ability to rethink and unlearn is just as critical as our ability to think.
So, let’s talk about two things:
Why do we stop learning?
How do we keep learning?
On the surface, we stop learning because we think we know. We wrongly assume information and people are stagnant, when we should assume everything and everyone is dynamic. Just think about your day. What was true of your emotions and schedule when you woke up is often completely different when you go to bed. Things change.
But it’s more than that. Below the surface, we stop learning because we’re afraid. You and I have been taught that not knowing something is a weakness, and weakness is professionally and personally deadly. Grant calls the antidote to this confident humility—having the security to admit what you don’t know and viewing it as an opportunity rather than a threat to your identity.
Grant invites his readers and students to think like a scientist. While scientists start with hypotheses, they assume things will change. That’s confident humility. They anticipate learning something. They keep testing, researching, and asking questions. That’s how we keep learning, too. We keep learning with this simple practice:ask one more question.
When you think you know a product … ask one more question. When you think you’ve fully understood a client … ask one more question. When you think you know yourself… ask one more question. When we commit to curiosity, we not only keep learning, but we gain something assumption never achieve: connection.
The moment you ask a question, you win, and so does everyone else.