This is Steve Robbins. Welcome to the get it done guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Today we're going to be talking about clear communication, specifically questions.

Oh, it's been a rough day at green growing things. That's Pranice's little plant shop, which

specializes in hard-to-find species like the carnivorous

Audrey Too's.

The store is in the running for first place in the Guinness Book of World Records for Healthiest

Audrey Too's Raised with No Inadvertent Missing Persons Reports.

The inspection team is due to arrive in just a few minutes.

Bernice is beside herself.

She's checking all the last-minute details.

Europa, she screams. Why did you water the Audrey Too so much?

Europa, who is usually the cashier and not the plant caretaker, is puzzled. What are you talking about?

The entire watering can is empty. How can you be so careless? responds, Bernice.

And as you can imagine,

the conversation devolves from there. We don't ask what we mean. I've noticed this over the last

several years, that we, and by we, I mean almost everyone, including me, unfortunately,

don't actually ask what we really want to know. What Bernice is actually concerned about is whether

the Audrey twos have been overwatered. But she didn't ask that. Instead, she asked Europa's reason

for watering a plant so much. Well, while sometimes it might be obvious what she really wants to know,

an awful lot of the time it actually isn't. And that's because we have hidden context.

When we ask a question, we have a mental

context for the question. We know some things. We don't know others. We have certain goals. And all

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