8 minute creative writing exercise
8-minute creative writing exercise (For best results don’t read ahead to the next exercise until you’ve completed the one you are working on) What you’ll need: pen, paper and a stopwatch/timer Exercise 1: Give yourself 1 minutes to write down a “before and after” example for a customer. This should be how you helped someone move from one place to another because of your service or product. For now, be practical. “Where did they start” and “where did they end” add in bullet points underneath. If you are struggling to think of an example try to focus in on product or service feedback you’ve had, customer journeys you are aware of, or how the impact you create has affected people. * Exercise 2: Give yourself 2 minutes, using the same example, to add in the emotions that customer felt. Then add in how it helps them move from a more negative state to a more positive one? What did you do to help? * Exercise 3: Give yourself 1 minute to identify (highlight or underline) the key points from the first two exercises. What really speaks to you? What would speak to other customers? What’s important? What gets your attention? What isn’t important? Feel free to add notes to things as you go. * Exercise 4: Give yourself 4 minutes to write a paragraph explaining this “before and after” example in a paragraph using the key points you identified in exercise 3. You must use all the key points you identified. *Questionning - supplementary notes following the workshop
**Brief notes on Question****ing to supplement the workshop input There is a strong link between questioning and listening. There is an equally strong link between listening and questioning. Think about these statements. Take a moment or two. A combination of listening and questioning is the most productive. If you only ask questions, it becomes persecutory: if you only listen, it can become challenging for the speaker. A combination is powerful. What is the purpose of asking questions? Shows interest Channels attention Evokes inquiry and stimulates thinking Creates awareness and understanding Invites more questions Types of questions ** Open Closed Leading For information Empowering Forward moving Powerful What is the value of each type of question? When is it appropriate to use each of these? And….. Silence – i.e. supportive listening, can behave as a very helpful question if it is done with expectation and interest. Unhelpful questions **‘Why’ questions? Accusatory. Often make people feel defensive and feel criticised. Closed questions, are unhelpful if there are too many. A CLOSED question is a question that invites a simple answer of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. An OPEN question invites a more expansive answer. What….? When….? How…..? And…?.So…..? etc. If you find yourself asking many closed questions, you can always follow it with an open question. E.g. Did you go to college? (Yes/No). versus: So what was it about college that led you to……? Leading questions – where you know what the answer you are looking for from the client. Multiple questions happen when a number of questions are all rolled up into one sentence. If you find yourself asking multiple questions, simply stop.NOTE. The shorter your question – the more expansive the answer you’ll get. A powerful question **is one that makes the client stop and think. The question triggers fresh thinking. Often the client will say – “That’s a great question.” Questions and leadership style A coaching style of leadership** **adopts a questioning and listening approach – encouraging the person to think really well for themselves, and to come up with ways forward and solutions for themselves with your encouragement. The best questions are those that emerge from interested, curious listening. Listen well and the next question will come into your mind. Ask it. **Empowering questions ** These are questions that help the person to search for answers and new possibilities Here are some to get you started: What can you do about that? What about that makes it work? What other choices can you make? What is another way to look at that? What is your next step? Please remind me of how you were able to do that? What do you think the main challenge is? What do you want to experience? What does your intuition tell you? Where do you believe that thought comes from? Where will that lead? How much time will that take? What are the benefits in that? How will you feel if that happens? What do you really mean by that? How does that idea sound to you? If it doesn’t work, what else could you do? What seems to confuse you? What scares you about that? Question mark you tried that how would you feel? How did that work for you before? What are you unwilling to tolerate any longer? Where are you limiting yourself//what if you do and what if you don’t? What really excites you about that? How can you stretch yourself there? What will energise you? Who are you when you do that? What about that makes a real statement for what you stand for? When is there a gap between whom you are and who you really know yourself to be? What are you unwilling to give up? Why aren’t things worse? If you had all the time, energy and money to achieve your goal, what would you do? What don’t you like about that idea? Why do you have to think it over? What part of that don’t you like?
Downloadable Resources
- [The TTT Council detailed notes](/leadership/assets/The TTT Council - detailed notes.pdf)
PDF - [Transforming Meetings Handout Copyright Nancy Kline](/leadership/assets/Transforming_Meetings Handout - Copyright Nancy Kline.pdf)
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