Better Health & Wellbeing Professionals Ask Better Questions: Become a Potentialiser and Bring Out the Best In Your Patients, Clients, & Colleagues.

By Lindsay Tighe and Heather-Jane Gray

Do you want to make a bigger difference in people's lives by enabling them to manage their own Health & Wellbeing? You have the ability to achieve this through one conscious act . . .by changing the way you communicate with people.

Communication typically consists of too much TELLING and not enough ASKING, which inhibits people taking responsibility for their own lives.

This 'easy read' book gives practical tips that will enable you to enhance your communication skills and professional practice so that you can empower patients/clients, resulting in more engagement and motivation towards self-care. Ultimately, this will lead to less dependence upon services that are already struggling to cope, as well as healthier and happier people in the world.

Develop best practice in your communication, become a Potentialiser and bring out the best in your patients, clients and colleagues!

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456618278

Book preview

610.696

Dedication

Thank you to the humble question mark for inspiring us – to inspire others – about the topic of asking Better Questions. We are eternally grateful.

To Health & Wellbeing Professionals everywhere – you do an amazing job!

Acknowledgements

There are too many people to thank personally, but I particularly want to mention my wonderful husband Michael who always supports and encourages me; you are my rock. Thanks also to my caring and supportive family who have always loved and believed in me, lovely Tina for her beautiful and inspiring presence in my life and tireless effort to help me spread the word about Better Questions, and also to Heather-Jane for her positivity, warmth, encouragement and belief in the message. To all the other wonderful people I know, thank you for being such a special part of my life.

Lindsay Tighe

A big THANKS to everyone in my life, especially my family, friends and colleagues. I really appreciate your unconditional love and encouragement on life’s fascinating journey.

Your great questions help my lifelong learning and inspire me to become the best person I can be.

Special thanks to the ‘collective genius’ of the Synergy Global Leadership Team (SGLT). Also to the lovely Lindsay, our Strategic Partner, without whom the Better Questions series wouldn’t exist.

To quote Marcel Proust (French Author and Critic, 1871–1922):

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;

They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

Heather-Jane Gray

About the Authors

Lindsay Tighe is a successful coach, trainer, mentor, public speaker and a published author. Growing up in the UK, she was inspired to travel by her uncle who lived and worked overseas, resulting in her settling in Australia in 1996. Lindsay’s first career in financial services spanned 22 years, during which time she developed a real passion for working with, motivating and developing people. In 2002, Lindsay was awarded an MBA (Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney) and she considers herself a life-long learner, maintaining a philosophy that the results you get in life start with you. It was around this time that Lindsay decided that she wanted to spread her wings and make a bigger contribution in the world, so she gave up the corporate life to start her own business – which, she says, was one of the best decisions she ever made. Work for Lindsay is a real joy and a pleasure. She feels extremely fortunate and privileged to work with so many amazing people.

Lindsay attributes her success to listening to her intuition and following her inner guidance, something she has done from a very young age. When she met her husband to be, Michael, at age 17, she had no hesitation in marrying him at age 18, trusting that he was absolutely the man of her dreams; 31 years later she is still extremely happily married and describes Michael as the ‘love of her life’. They love to spend as much time together as they can and adore their two Cocker Spaniel dogs, Wilson and Becky.

Heather-Jane Gray is an Effectiveness Consultant, Change Facilitator and Executive Coach, who is passionate about making the world a better place. She understands that ‘Socratic Questioning’ is a great approach to empower people and improve communication – individually and across teams/organisations. She holds several post-grad qualifications in health and business management, including her RN, an International MBA (Henley Business School, Reading University, UK) and a Harkness Fellowship, researching ‘Values-based Leadership & Cultural Change’ (Haas Business School, UC Berkeley, USA). She’s also an author, speaker and the Chief Executive of Synergy Global (www.synergy-global.com).

For over 30 years, Heather-Jane’s had the privilege of helping leaders in health, social care and business to lead change more effectively. She shares a passion for questioning and empowerment – ensuring that everyone’s time, skill and energy (three key resources) are used to best effect in fulfilling their potential.

Heather-Jane loved her ‘Bedpans to Boardrooms’ health career – nursing in all clinical areas, through to being a Chief Executive and Policy Analyst in the UK National Health Service (NHS). She then travelled extensively as an International Health Strategist and Consultant, before settling in Melbourne, Australia seven years ago, with her husband Nick. She’s blessed with good health, an amazing extended family of friends, and has four lovely daughters who are very good at questioning (Clare, Emma, Rachel and Hannah) – plus two special grandsons (Louis and Sam).

What people say about this book

A practical, easy to read book, exploring the benefits of developing personal effectiveness through asking better questions. An essential read for any healthcare professional who wishes to enhance their practice – empowering both patients and colleagues.

Alasdair G Miller, Dental Postgraduate Dean, NHS South West & President elect 2014, British Dental Association (BDA)

Thanks for bringing more consciousness to communication! I’ve learned a great deal and have been implementing many of the strategies already. This is an excellent book for those wanting to empower through insight and understanding – themselves, their clients, plus the Health & Wellbeing Profession.

Scott Billings, Japanese Acupuncturist, Senior Lecturer at the Australian Shiatsu College, VIC, AUS

I’ve lost count of the times clients return for a review of their injury and report their symptoms are no better. When in fact things are improved, however the client has failed to recognise this. Using the skills outlined in this book it is imperative we illicit the most accurate information from our clients so we can tailor our management plans to that individual at that point in time.

Rob Brandham, APA Sports Physiotherapist, MPhysio (Sports), Director, St Kilda Road Sports & Physiotherapy Centre, VIC, AUS

What an inspiring read! This wonderful book enables one to realise that by stepping back you enable and empower your clients to take more control of their own health. I highly recommend that all health and wellbeing practitioners learn these skills as we all need to consistently reflect on and improve our practice and tap in to the potential of others.   

Rhonda Hinds, Registered Nurse, Community Nursing, Victoria, Australia

Wow! From the first chapter I found myself changing my perceptions on how I currently interact with clients. This book really made me reflect on the way I converse and how I can improve my practice, through asking Better Questions – whilst making sure that I really listened to their answers.

Ross McKenzie, Remedial Massage Therapist, Dip RM,

Member AAMT, VIC, AUS

To better assist clients is our primary goal, this book clearly guides us through better questioning and therefore more mindful, empowering practice. Thanks for a welcome addition to our field. I recommend it to practitioners and also to their support staff, as they too will greatly benefit from the ‘jewels’ to be found within this thoughtfully written book.

Karina Hilterman, Medical Herbalist & Wellness Educator, Founder of ‘Herb Awareness Week’, VIC, AUS & NZ

At last a book which helps managers develop the full leadership potential of those working closely with or reporting to them. The authors lead the reader through the art of listening carefully before jumping in with the answers – a must read from cover to cover and a god send to anyone who wants to improve their coaching skills!

Caroline Mulcahy, Former Director of Neonatal Services & Principal Nurse, Royal Women’s Hospital, AUS

A great, easy to use book which will enable staff to ask better questions and connect with clients in a more meaningful way, strengthening their relationship. Thank you Lindsay and Heather-Jane for providing this valuable addition to our toolkit to enhance our person-centred approach with clients.

Sushila Patel, Managing Director of Care Companions Ltd (Home Care), UK

Simplicity underlies a good deal of creative thinking and innovation. Better Questions cuts through to the heart of a simple and effective approach to help individuals uncover their own innate wisdom. It is both powerful and empowering.

Max Dumais, Founding CEO of the De Bono Institute, VIC, AUS

Better quality questions are vital to success in life, in business and in how you relate to yourself, others & the world. With the right questions you can directionalise people’s head, heart and gut brains. Well done to Lindsay & Heather-Jane for bringing this great book to Health & Wellbeing Professionals. It’ll make a difference to the quality of the questions being asked by practitioners in this important area.

Grant Soosalu, Scientist & Psychologist, Co-founder of emerging field of multiple Brain Integration Techniques (mBIT/mBraining)

Crisp thinking and delivery of a complex issue, with a solution that can be applied to any situation great and small. Clear exposition so empowering yet in retrospect self-evident, turning an emotive topic into simple guidelines of logic where emotions can no longer interfere.

Peter Gregory MBBS MS FRACS. Surgeon & Oncologist. Monash Medical Centre, VIC, AUS

Background: Authors’ Note

If you’re reading this book, there is a good chance that either your workplace has suggested it or provided it as a resource for you, or you are interested in your own self-development and see this as a resource to enable you to learn new skills or improve your existing skills. Alternatively, you may have attended one of our Better Health & Wellbeing Professionals Ask Better Questions workshops, in which case you will have already heard the key messages in this book, and this is now a resource to enable you to embed the learning, and be reminded of these key messages as you put them into practice.

Whatever the reason, we feel humbled to be able to share some insights and wisdom from our journey of working with some amazing caring professionals, in the hope that there will be something meaningful in the book that enables you to be even better than you are already. We know what a fantastic job people who work in the Health & Wellbeing field do, and what a significant difference they make in the lives of people that they work with. Our intention in writing this book is to honour this and share our passion for asking Better Questions in the hope that it will inspire you to want to use the skill in your professional practice, as this will enable you to make an even bigger difference in people’s lives.

By way of background, in October 2009, Lindsay followed her passion for helping people ask Better Questions, so that others could find better answers, and published her first book THE ANSWER – Improve Your Life by Asking Better Questions. In doing so she shared her wisdom of this amazing life skill with as many people as possible . . . and discussed how to spread the message with several friends.

One of these friends was Heather-Jane, who asked Lindsay to tell her about her first personal experience of asking Better Questions. Lindsay said that it came about when she took on a leadership role in the corporate world, where she felt technically incompetent but had a real interest in turning around underperforming teams. She found it challenging, as she felt unable to fulfil the role in any way other than to ask Better Questions; in doing so, she discovered that questioning more and telling less became quite magical – not only in terms of her own growth, but also in terms of the skills and confidence it facilitated within her team.

As a result of having quite literally ‘fallen in’ to a more questioning approach, Lindsay learnt that this was something that she wanted to explore further, so 11 years ago she left the corporate world to pursue her interest. Since then she’s not only become more practiced in the skill itself, but has also developed an absolute passion for training others, given that she knows how much of a profound difference it makes in the world.

After publishing the first book, Lindsay was chatting to Heather-Jane and told her that she’d received a phone call from a client who worked in health and disability services. They began discussing the patient/client-centred care approach that Heather-Jane had worked on in the UK and the US, with the ‘new’ approach to working with clients being advocated in Australia called the Active Service Model. The shared philosophy of both approaches is to partner with clients rather than to do for clients, to help support them in the achievement of identified goals, and to empower them to make choices about what they want rather than make assumptions or take over the decision-making for them. Specifically, this means supporting more vulnerable elderly clients to remain living more independently in their communities, if that is what they choose to do. As Lindsay and Heather-Jane talked about the potential use of the Better Questions approach, they became very excited about partnering together to help Health & Well-being Professionals assist clients to build capacity and become more engaged, empowered and, ultimately, fulfilled in their lives.

Lindsay developed a pilot training program, which was rolled out initially to about thirty staff, on the basis that she and Heather-Jane would review the results achieved to ascertain if the training was effective and staff felt that they now had more skills to enable them to carry out the new approach in practice. She was overwhelmed by what happened following this pilot program – not only with the success achieved by the professionals using Better Questions, but also by how quickly news of the program’s impact spread. She had to train other people to deliver the program to meet the demand, and has trained thousands of managers, nurses, community health professionals and case managers in the skill of asking Better Questions across Australia.

Lindsay and Heather-Jane have been so impressed by staff working in this sector, who have so willingly taken on board the training and, as a result, have changed their communication approach. Indeed, they’ve both been near to tears when they’ve heard updates from participants who have practiced the skill with profound results. It’s so rewarding to know that people have embraced using the Better Questions approach, which has then benefited their wonderful clients and enabled them to shine.

Lindsay and Heather-Jane continued to meet regularly to discuss progress with the program. They recognise that Clinical Practitioners are trained and, indeed, well qualified with diagnostic questioning . . . yet they remain curious that there is sometimes a ‘disconnect’ when it comes to continuing empowerment – especially in managerial/leadership positions, when role-modelling this approach to others can be so helpful. In discussing this with Heather-Jane, who’s worked in the health and wellbeing field for years, she says that she believes one of the main reasons why people tell and not ask is simply that (in the short term) it’s so much quicker. Health & Wellbeing Professionals (like many others, but particularly in some clinical areas) have very little spare time – and whilst she knows that they have positive intentions to empower clients, it doesn’t always happen in practice; it just becomes too hard. She also recognises that unfortunately this is a limiting belief, which is why she decided to join Lindsay in writing this book.

Lindsay and Heather-Jane cannot promise that the approach they are sharing will be the ‘magic wand’ and that it will work in all situations. However, what they do know is that health systems worldwide are stretched to the limit, extremely burdensome on governments and often very stressful for the people who work in them. In addition, a lot of current practices create dependence, are not respectful and enable a passive approach to looking after one’s own health. The reason Lindsay and Heather-Jane prefer to use the term ‘client’ rather than ‘patient’ is that it is more empowering (just consider the concept of serving clients/customers/guests in hospitals; it’s more than semantics – linguistics can change perceptions, attitudes and, eventually, behaviours/cultures). They’ve also chosen to use the more holistic and empowering term ‘Health & Wellbeing Professionals’ rather than the traditional ‘healthcare’ term, to recognise professionals’ increasing role in health promotion/education (including many wellness practitioners and fitness professionals). They believe that with your skilled application, the philosophy and practices that they share in this book can transform systems and practices to ultimately enable a healthier society, which will be a fabulous outcome.

Thanks for choosing to read this book. Lindsay and Heather-Jane trust that by further improving your current questioning skills, you’ll be inspired to support and enable your clients by taking a more person-centred and empowered approach with them – which inevitably will lead