A Rule of Thumb to Improve Your Conversation Skills

by ParentCo. April 13, 2016

Asking questions is a great way to start an engaging conversation. Ask too many questions, however, and your conversation starts to feel more like an interrogation. To avoid this, author Ramit Sethi suggests the “question, question, statement” method.

You’re not adding any value to the conversation if you’re just asking questions. A good rule of thumb is to ask two to three questions and then make a statement.

Bad example: “Where are you from? How long have you been there? Oh, do you like it? What brought you here?” Good example: “Where are you from?” “I’m from Michigan.” “Oh, I’ve been to Michigan before. I actually grew up in Phoenix, but I live in Chicago now, pretty close by.” “Oh, really? So how long have you been there?”

Source: Improve Your Conversation Skills With the Right Balance of Questions and Statements

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