question?

Coaching Questions: A Coach's Guide to Powerful Asking Skills
$14.99
Stoltzfus' focus is completely process oriented. Beginning with a focus on how to engender progress through the use of powerful questions, he proceeds to build on this in a methodical way. His approach is pragmatic, and avoids any direct consideration of the larger issues that might be important in a ministry context. This is both a strength and a weakness, in my view.

On the positive side, the text is single-minded in presenting the tools and materials for coaching, particularly for those desiring to pursue it as a professional career. The coaching process is presented in a very organized way, and there are practical tools and applications on every page. There is no reason for the reader to be unclear about how to apply any technique because checklists, example questions and hypothetical conversations abound. Step by step instructions are given for each phase of the coaching relationship, so that the reader can expect to jump right in to applying the methods with the book as a handy resource.

On the negative side, Stoltzfus glosses over some critical issues when it comes to any discussion of spirituality, values, etc. (admittedly my own preconceptions are of the validity of the Christian worldview). Where these elements do appear, he assumes their presence and or validity in his methods. The first time this issue appears is in his Life Wheel assessment (p.33). One is left to wonder what course of action should follow is a coachee says that God does not exist, and thus is not a consideration in identifying the important topics that coaching might address.

Similarly, as values are discussed throughout the book they are assumed to both exist and be susceptible to affirmation. But anyone familiar with the world will recognize that Stoltzfus' values list (p.57) does not reflect what the world values. The most common values of wealth, power, and pleasure are underrepresented (career advancement and financial independence come closest on his list). One is left to wonder how the coaching would proceed with a coachee who requested assistance to take action in divorcing his wife for a wealthy younger woman (a hyperbolic example to illustrate the point).

While one could put this book to good use, and prove a point about tools being value neutral, that does not relieve this author from the responsibility to deal with these issues.

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life
$19.95
I learned a long time ago, the value of a book is not determined by it's size (QBQ is only 115 pages), nor by how long it takes to read (QBQ can be read in about an hour), and not even by the number pages where you make notes in the margins (my copy of QBQ is only marked on a few pages) but the real value of a book should be determined by what you learn from it. When I finish a book, I ask myself, Will I grow from what I've learned? Was the time I invested here well spent? How will I alter what I do because of this book? My personal creed is to be a better person today than I was yesterday, so the most important question is, will I become a better person because of this book?

QBQ: THE QUESTION BEHIND THE QUESTION, by John G. Miller passed all of my criteria for being a "must read" type book. The primary message here is two-fold; personal accountability and ask better questions to get better answers. Sounds simple right? Let me give you a real life example to expand the principle.

I recently had a store manager and her entire staff out with the flu and pulled personnel from other stores to fill in. It turned into one giant fiasco when the stores printer went down, their operating software went down. And even the fax quit working. It was a perfect storm and the mistakes that took place were colossal.

My initial questions included "Who is responsible", "Why did you do this", and "When will I ever find capable people?" Had I read this book a few weeks earlier, my questions would have been much different. What can I do to prevent something like this from ever happening again? Or, How can I use this to improve our training program?

We live in a "finger-pointing" world. We put more focus on placing blame (or protecting ourselves from it) than on finding solutions. To find those solutions without placing blame, our questions should begin with "What" or "How" (not "Why", "When", or "Who"). To reinforce personal accountability, our questions should contain "I" (not "they", "them", "we", or "you"). Finally, our question must focus on action. "What can I do" is a perfect example.

Yes, the book is small. Yes, it only takes about an hour to read. Yes, you really do need to read it.

If... (Questions For The Game of Life)
$12.95
Many of the questions in this book are incredibly disturbing. Like the one about whose pet you would kill. Or what country you would nuke. Or what family member you would like to watch you have sex. Or who you would lock up in a room and torture. What the hell is wrong with these people?

The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics
$26.00
If you are reading The Big Questions merely for a playful romp you may be a little disappointed. Oh, it's a terrific romp, and well worth the price of admission. However, the book is a romp for the truly intellectually curious as it delves head on into theories of beliefs, epistemology, fairness, existence and more using the rigorous logic of physics, math and economics. Professor Landsburg's ability to cover all of these ideas so clearly, so enjoyably and so convincingly in less than 300 small pages is no less impressive than conceiving of the fabulously enormous schnoogol (see p. 102).

I only say "disappointing" because reading the book makes one wish they had the ability to learn more about each of its subjects. The paradoxes and puzzles are tantalizingly interesting, and the logic behind their resolutions so refreshingly solid, that reading it might lead one to believe that they have the capability to master the deepest insights into these fields. Have you ever wanted to grasp what the Uncertainty Principle really means? Well, you'll certainly be able to relay it to your friends after reading this book. But if you are like me, I am not sure you will be any closer to fully appreciating the weirdness that is quantum physics even after wrestling with this neat and short chapter.

The risk with explaining phenomena so clearly or with simple logic, is that one might be lured into believing that addressing the solution to the phenomenon is simple, or perhaps impossible. Take for example the discussion of activities that disturb your neighbors (pp. 113-121). The logic is airtight that, "when the cost of your activities spill over onto your neighbors, you engage in more of those activities than you ought to." Every economist worth their salt understands this. But it does not follow that pollution should be cleaned up or that it won't be cleaned up absent some grand plan to do so. Landsburg, of course, also recognizes this. But a quick or careless reading of that section or with only a casual understanding of the transactions costs which might prevent a convergence of marginal and social costs, or a casual understanding of the cooperative arrangements that might emerge in response to such problems, would have some readers thinking that the only solution to the "potbelly pig problem" is to tax them, regulate them or otherwise impose draconian governmental solutions.

This is what I mean when I say the Big Questions is a Big Boy Book. Some readers that are amateur philosophers or physicists or economists who find the logic behind the arguments so persuasive and impenetrable, nonetheless walk away feeling like there must be more to the story, or worried about using that logic in an open forum. I hope that this book is not the readers' first encounter with the ideas from math, physics and economics that are used to deal with the Big Questions - for this is not the place to begin your study of those fields. Rather, the point of the book is to use key insights from within those fields to inform the Big Questions. All too often, casual readers of books like this seem to misunderstand this application.

Of course the book was not written as a primer on physics, math and economics. It was written to demonstrate the power of logic, the virtues of consistency, how to craft a serious argument, the power of simple arithmetic and an exercise to invigorate the mind. It is a home run on all of these measures. The Big Questions is antiseptic against ad hominem arguments - see for example the discussion of the prejudice against those who accumulate great financial fortunes (p. 219), or the encouragement (really!) to delight in losing arguments. The Big Questions is an intellectual version of "putting your money where your mouth is" - see, for example the discussion of immigration and the logic required to argue that immigrants are "bad" for an economy. And it is much more. In short, the Big Questions is a terrific toolkit for anyone hoping to engage sincerely in intellectual debate and choc full of hammers to help you tamp down those nails that have been sticking out of your intellectual edifice.

In a world of myriad wonderful entertainment and educational choices, reading the Big Questions nonetheless is well worth the investment.