by Paul Quinn | Apr 9, 2026 | Asking - Business, Asking - Empowerment, Communication Skills, Presentation Skills
There are reasonable creative projects … and then there are the ones that grow ten times their size and cause their cowering creators to ask, “What have we wrought?!” The Big Ask audiobook began with the innocent question: “Hey – what if...
by Paul Quinn | Jan 10, 2026 | Asking - Relationships, Communication Skills, Relationships
When could asking personal questions come across as nosy and intrusive … and when could it take conversations into richer territory? Nobody wants to ask questions that could upset or offend a conversational partner. But because we don’t always know what...
by Paul Quinn | Oct 6, 2025 | Communication Skills, Workplace Etiquette
Photo by Timur Weber In my book, The Big Ask, I devote a chapter to the art of conversation and how questions can connect us to each other. But what if it backfires? What if your thoughtfully engaging questions ensnare you in someone’s ponderous plot summaries of...
by Paul Quinn | Jun 24, 2025 | Asking - Cultural Attitudes, Communication Skills
There’s a dramatic moment in the British film Living in which Mr. Williams, a soft-spoken public works employee played by Bill Nighy, approaches his superior, Sir James, who’s refused his requests to turn a sewage-filled abandoned lot into a children’s...
by Paul Quinn | Feb 11, 2025 | Asking - Relationships, Asking - Workplace, Communication Skills, Handling Conflicts, Personal Development
Oh, the possibilities are horrible. And endless. Your attempt at humor backfires and you’re marked as an insensitive jerk. Someone you love catches you in a lie that hurts them and erodes their trust in you. You accidentally text “Just between us, I think Sam is...
by Paul Quinn | Feb 7, 2025 | Asking - Business, Asking - Professional Development, Asking - Workplace, Communication Skills, Workplace Etiquette
When it comes to making requests, we’re most persuasive face to face. Even when asking something of someone we don’t know, we’re 34 times more likely to get a yes in person than by email (phone calls are the next most persuasive). Trouble is, in the worlds...
