Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs in Leadership and Life - Hardcover

by Jeff Wetzler (Author), Amy Edmondson (Foreword by)

Globally recognized expert on learning and leadership, Jeff Wetzler offers a hands-on, surprisingly effective way to find out what others really think, know, and feel, leading to smarter decisions, more creative solutions, and deeper relationships.

"Invaluable ... required reading." --Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor and Radical Respect

Too often, we don't find out what's truly on others' hearts and minds because we don't know how to ask the right questions in the right ways. Co-founder of Transcend and former international business consultant and Teach for America executive Jeff Wetzler wants to show you how to fix that. In Ask, he brings you a powerful method called The Ask Approach(TM), based on a simple premise: that tapping into what other people truly think, know, and feel is a game-changing superpower.

Wetzler reveals the most common things that people think and feel but often keep to themselves, as well as the key reasons why they choose to withhold information that could be valuable to you and your organization. He delves into the five steps of the Ask Approach, each answering an essential question:
1. Choose Curiosity: How can you awaken your curiosity to make new discoveries and unexpected connections?
2. Make it Safe: How do you make it easier for people to tell you hard things?
3. Pose Quality Questions: What questions will best tap into the wisdom of anyone you ask?
4. Listen to Learn: How can you hear what someone is really trying to tell you?
5. Reflect & Reconnect: How do you turn talk into action?

Ask helps you make asking an everyday superpower--not only for yourself but also for your team and organization, as well as for the next generation and society at large. In a fast-changing world where AI is supplanting an increasing range of skills, the ability to learn from and connect with other people is one of the most important, fulfilling and uniquely human capabilities to master.

"Readable, compassionate, intelligent, and useful." --Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School Professor & author of The Fearless Organization & Right Kind of Wrong

Author Biography

Jeff Wetzler has been on a quarter-century quest to transform learning opportunities and unlock human potential. Blending a unique set of leadership experiences in the fields of business and education, he's pursued this quest as a management consultant to the world's top corporations, as a learning facilitator for leaders around the world, as Chief Learning Officer at Teach For America, and currently, as co-CEO of Transcend, a nationally recognized innovation organization. Jeff earned a Doctorate in Adult Learning and Leadership from Columbia University and a Bachelor's in Psychology from Brown University. He is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and is an Edmund Hillary Fellow. Jeff lives in New York with his wife, two children, and their puppy.