Thursday, April 2, 2015

Learning to Ask the Right Questions

I read an article from the paper by a family practice doctor about an 88 year old patient with congestive heart failure and renal failure. He had been to a large number of specialists; none were able to help him, and so he was referred back to the family practice. In this case, if you treat one condition and the patient gets better, the other condition worsens. This man refuses dialysis. This family physician doesn't know what he can do for his patient. 

He then remembered a visiting palliative care physician's words -- "We forget to ask patients what they want from their care. What are their goals?" He then asks the elderly patient,"What are the goals for your care? How can I help you?" The patient responded, "I would like to walk without falling." The goal for these elderly patients should be to maximize their function. He told the patient that they have services designed to keep him comfortable and that would allow him to stay at home.

The nature of the questions we ask either keeps the existing system in place, or brings an alternative approach and future into the picture. In his book, Community, by Peter Block, he makes a distinction between Questions with Little Power and Questions with Great Power.

Questions with Little Power are questions that maintain dominance and are concerned with Being Right. They are questions that create a predictable future without uncertainty. The result is the Present projected forward. What distinguishes the future, is it's unpredictability and mystery.

Questions with Great Power are questions that have the power to make a difference, that engage people in an intimate way, confront them with their freedom, and invite them to co-create a future possibility. They are questions that cause actions, that do not allow the luxury of being a spectator.

Block defines a great question with three qualities:

IT IS AMBIGUOUS. There is no attempt to try to precisely define what is meant by the question. This requires each person to bring their own, personal meaning into the room.

IT IS PERSONAL. All passion, commitment and connection grow out of what is most personal. We need to create more space for the personal.

IT EVOKES ANXIETY. All that matters makes us anxious. It is our wish to escape from anxiety that steals our aliveness. If there is no edge to the question, there is no power.

Questions with Little Power are -- "How do we get people to show up and be committed? How do we get those people to buy into our vision?"

Questions with Great Power are -- "What is the commitment you hold that brought you into this room? What are the gifts you hold that have not been brought fully into the world? What is your contribution to the very thing you complain about?" These types of questions have the capacity to move something forward.

In coming articles we will investigate these ideas further as Jim Myers and I address two very important questions about the present and about our future -- "Why the TOV Center? Why Now?

Be Blessed,
Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor

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What is Power?

Power is ability to move someone or something from one place to another, to do something or not do something. To learn more about power read the Country Cogitator’s latest blog at -- http://thecountrycogitator.blogspot.com/2015/04/what-is-power.html


Monday, March 30, 2015

Passover: A Spiritual Lesson for Everyone

This coming Friday night, Passover begins at sunset. I have such cherished memories, some of which I've already shared, but there is a lesson here for all of us as well. The "Exodus" from Egypt is a universal story. It reflects something about human experience. I maintain, that none of us ever voluntarily leaves their "Egypt", we have to be thrown out!

 "Egypt" to me, is a metaphor for what is familiar, what is known. Very few of us voluntarily leave what is familiar and known for what is unknown and unfamiliar.

Most people do not like changes, no matter how small. We become used to doing things in a certain way, expecting certain results. Change is usually put upon us, whether we like it or not. All of us have our "Egypts." Many people will stay in situations and relationships that are toxic, because they are used to it. When someone suffers abuse, in a number of cases, the abused person remains because the situation is familiar. Even being able to leave and go to a shelter raises anxiety about what will happen next.

Financial problems, illness, death and changes in status all bring with them the specter of the unknown. When my wife Karen died, my first thoughts were about, "What am I supposed to do now? Will I be able to continue this by myself?" This question has appeared in many forms, by many people in the work that I do.

Think for a moment. What is your "Egypt?" Where in your lives have you become too comfortable with known quantities, good or bad? What can we do when life changing things are forced upon us?

 Here is where I take a lesson from Passover. My observation over many years is, that these occurrences, which take us out of the familiar are the only times that people really change anything. This is because nothing can ever be the same. That is a scary notion. Things may not ever be the same, but they can be different. These are the times when humans grow. There is no way through the desert, except through the desert.

It is interesting that in the Biblical story of the Exodus, the Israelites and other Semites, the mixed multitude that left with them go out into the Midbar, the Hebrew word for wilderness, not desert. A desert can be waterless, lifeless, but there is life in the wilderness. More important, it is in the Midbar that the Israelites receive the Torah, a constitution of instruction, which allows them to eventually become a nation.

It is in the wilderness, that a number of Biblical personalities encounter their Higher Power or Highest Self. This experience leads them to their destinies, to their purpose. I feel it is the same for all of us. It is the unfamiliar and the unknown which brings us to where we need to be. Life without Risk is no life, Love without Risk, is no love. I always encourage people not to waste the valuable lessons the unfamiliar and the unknown teach. There is no real progress when we remain in the safety of our "Egypts." 

The Hebrew month of Nisan (not the car), in which Passover occurs is the first month of the Hebrew calendar. I view it as a new spiritual beginning and a time to embrace the changes that are sure to come from leaving the known for the unknown, the familiar for the unfamiliar and the safety of "Egypt" for the growth, knowledge and accomplishment that Risking brings.

May we all be blessed as our new adventures begin!
Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor


PS – If you found this information useful:

(1) Go to the TOV Center Facebook Page and “Like It” -- click here  

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