This morning my son was asking me what is 24*60. I was mentioning there are couple of ways to do this
1. 25 * 60 - 1*60
2. 20*6 + 4 *60
He stopped me and said I want the answer and not the steps. This made me 'Think'.
1. Think and give a definitive answer -
My rule of thumb is - if the answer is not yes it is no.
It sounds black and white.
But when you look for white any other shade will not make it white. Might as well take any other non white shade as black
A lot of times in our business meetings we talk about details and explain the steps,process,procedures and details while the other person only wants the answer.
A simple yes or no question in a meeting always gets very lengthy replies which amounts to 'May be' 'It depends'.
2. Another important factor is asking the questioner why he/she is asking. In this case the interest/intent was to find how many minutes are there in a day (Proud he is my son.. i am calculating days in another post and at his level he is calculating minutes..may be the little one will be calculating seconds).
Always ask 'why' is the lesson I learnt. Why are using asking this question? What are you intending to achieve?
Next time you go to your meeting or some one is asking you solve a simple math problem try the following 2 ideas
1. (whenever possible) Answer first: Answer with a firm 'Yes' or 'No' .Then ask if the other person is interested in the details.
2. Ask why to understand the context . Unless we ask why we will never know why the other person is asking the question.
1. 25 * 60 - 1*60
2. 20*6 + 4 *60
He stopped me and said I want the answer and not the steps. This made me 'Think'.
1. Think and give a definitive answer -
My rule of thumb is - if the answer is not yes it is no.
It sounds black and white.
But when you look for white any other shade will not make it white. Might as well take any other non white shade as black
A lot of times in our business meetings we talk about details and explain the steps,process,procedures and details while the other person only wants the answer.
A simple yes or no question in a meeting always gets very lengthy replies which amounts to 'May be' 'It depends'.
2. Another important factor is asking the questioner why he/she is asking. In this case the interest/intent was to find how many minutes are there in a day (Proud he is my son.. i am calculating days in another post and at his level he is calculating minutes..may be the little one will be calculating seconds).
Always ask 'why' is the lesson I learnt. Why are using asking this question? What are you intending to achieve?
Next time you go to your meeting or some one is asking you solve a simple math problem try the following 2 ideas
1. (whenever possible) Answer first: Answer with a firm 'Yes' or 'No' .Then ask if the other person is interested in the details.
2. Ask why to understand the context . Unless we ask why we will never know why the other person is asking the question.
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