Good Question! The Art of Asking Questions To Bring About Positive Change [Paperback]

Judy Barber (Author), Mark Forster (Contributor), David Ure (Contributor), Jean Houston (Contributor), And Others (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1905430078 | ISBN-13: 978-1905430079 | Publication Date: November 10, 2005

HAVE YOU EVER noticed how pleased people are when you ask a good question? They even exclaim 'Good Question!' in acknowledgement. This book, which bringstogether some of the favourite questions used by 28 of the sharpest minds inbusiness and personal de

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

When she landed at Dover off an ocean liner, Judy could still hear the sounds of her Zulu Nanny singing. She was a Surrey grammar school girl doing sciences, with a taste for drama fed by Christmas parties with cockney music hall relatives.

She danced through student life in Brighton reading novels, dressing in 1940s frocks and learning from enlightened lecturers how to teach teenagers and adults.

She has taught English, literature, drama and more in prison, technical college, Iran, Rudolf Steiner School and in the community to every age. She has cooked French food in Paris, collected Balinese paintings, sat with Buddhist teachers in Devon and Thailand, edited and written for magazines, run workshops, acted, helped found a school in New Zealand, owned and run a B&B and done up old houses. She's studied art therapy and anthroposophy, and been on inspiring seminars with the best.

She enjoys many things and in a parallel universe she might be a basket maker, an interior designer, an inventor, a spiritual friend of sorts, a playwright or a director.

She has a B.Ed in English, psychology and education, and certificates in Drama Therapy, NLP Practitioner level, Newcastle College Performance Coaching and Fraser Clarke Business Coaching. She's an International Coach Federation member and a Social Artist.

Judy believes we can `have it all' by finding balance, bringing our own dreams into reality and giving to life.

People choose to work with Judy to achieve personal, career and business goals and when they want their lives to matter. People she meets need to be contributing and feel painful frustration until they are. Her vision is for things to work out in the 21st century, and so her book is about evolving communication. Life is changing and people need inspiration, and to experience their lives as necessary parts of the big picture.

Judy loves interesting conversations and relates to the whole gamut of relationships and group dynamics, so she works one to one and with groups, inviting people to develop confidence and creativity, and finding questions encouraging clarity, fresh thought and moving forward. People can allow different aspects of themselves to blossom.

Her clients come from a wide personal and geographical background, including business people, coaches, writers, and those using coachingand facilitation skills; a diverse group sharing a common desire to make unique contributions to life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Bookshaker (November 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905430078
• ISBN-13: 978-1905430079
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #842,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ammunition of Change, April 28, 2011

By 

AngusMcLeod - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Question! The Art of Asking Questions To Bring About Positive Change (Paperback)

'Whatever level of coaching competence a coach is operating at there are only a few key elements that underpin the coaching process within the coaching dynamic: exquisite listening, questions at different levels of appropriate challenge and opportunities (silences) for the coachee to self-reflect.

Without exquisite listening and questions, the all-important self-reflection will not happen. Questions then, form the ammunition which fuels the vast majority of coaching interventions made internationally. Judy Barber has therefore done a great job in seeking a wide cohort of coaches to expand and develop ideas about how questions can be used, when they may be most effectively used, as well as understanding the underlying `intent' of the question. These overt `intents' enable the reader to confidently think about developing good questions of their own. Having set the questions into groups with common underlying purpose, Judy brings further clarity to the text as well as deeper learning.

Too many coaches bring their own obsession with goals into the dynamic. I recall one novice's opening gambit which was something like, `What amazing objective do you want in your life today?' and the response was, `my mother just died this week so I am wanting to deal with how I am now'. So good questions also include `sustainability questions' to check that the resources for change are available, that priorities can be changed if necessary to make space for effort. If someone close has just died, then something else might have to happen first, so the Grovian question, `And what would you like to have happen?' (provided in this book by Wendy Sullivan) is truly valuable. The enthusiastic coach through inadvertent `leading' will fail the coachee. As Judy puts it, `If you are more personally detached from the outcome and more relaxed than the coachee then they can focus on their own motivation and you can put your energy into being receptive to their agenda.'
Performance Coaching: The Handbook for Managers, H.R. Professionals and CoachesPerformance Coaching Toolkit
Judy Barber's book includes questions to help coaches think much more deeply about what they are doing, not just what they are asking. For the reader who wants to understand more about the underlying messages, this book is a great library of source-material for creative thinking and advancement. What coaches might also like to consider is whether they are capable of coaching using questions designed only for the benefit of the client and not just to help themselves understand. When they do this, they are truly differentiating themselves from what Robert Dilts calls `small c' coaches. 'Good Question! The Art of Asking Questions to Bring About Positive Change' can help you to Coach with a capital C.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad answer, August 20, 2011

By 

John C Berkoski (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Good Question! The Art of Asking Questions To Bring About Positive Change (Kindle Edition)

After reading the first three our four essays, I had to check the cover to see if I was reading the right book. The book contains essays on personal productivity and motivation which are all fine, but very little content in the book is related to the title or subtitle.

The only question I have now is why did I buy this book?

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable Tool for Coaching, March 17, 2006

By 

Steve Halls "Steve Halls Author of FBI (Fit B... (Staffordshire, England, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Question! The Art of Asking Questions To Bring About Positive Change (Paperback)

So many great coaches with so different outlooks. This book really makes you think outside the box. There is information contained within that can be used instantly and other snippets of pure wisdom when you need assistance in a particular area. A very easy book to read in small but powerful chunks that will enpower anyone reading it. A "must read" for all people interested in Personal Development.