When Stany Foucher reflects on years of training with the founders of Art du Déplacement, he doesn’t talk about the legendary conditioning sessions or the hours of repetition. He talks about what came after.

Something that I really get, also from those years of training, and maybe you don’t see it, is all the questioning behind it. I cannot think of a training that would not end with a question—open question from, especially from Yann—just reflecting on what you did. Why were you in that state of mind when we’re doing this movement? Why did you want to stop when you were doing the QM? Lots of questions and reflecting on what you did. I think this is an important piece of the training.

Notice what Foucher is describing. Not answers delivered at the end of a session. Not corrections or assessments or feedback. Questions. And not rhetorical ones—open questions that resist easy resolution. Why were you in that state of mind? Why did you want to stop?

This runs against how we typically think about teaching, coaching, and even conversation. The standard model assumes that sessions should close with clarity: here’s what you learned, here’s what to work on, here’s the takeaway. Resolution signals competence. Tidy endings feel productive.

But Foucher is pointing to something different. The open question doesn’t close the training—it extends it. When you leave a session still sitting with “why did I want to stop?” that question travels with you. It works on you during the walk home, during dinner, in the shower the next morning. The training continues long after the physical movement ends.

What if conversations work the same way?

We often enter dialogue looking for resolution. We want to land somewhere, to reach agreement, to solve the problem, to achieve understanding. And sometimes that’s appropriate. But there’s another possibility: that the best conversations are ones that open things up rather than close them down. That leaving with a question might be more valuable than leaving with an answer.

This isn’t about being evasive or withholding. It’s about recognizing that some of the most important shifts happen after the conversation ends—when we’re left alone with an open question that won’t stop turning in our minds. The question creates space for something to move internally, what Foucher calls “movement of the mind, movement of the spirit.”

Consider the difference between ending a conversation with “so what we’ve established is…” versus “I’m still wondering about…” The first closes the loop. The second leaves it open, inviting continued reflection, possibly leading somewhere neither person anticipated.

Foucher notes this kind of questioning is harder in certain contexts—the structured academy, the hour-long class, the packed schedule. There isn’t always time or space for sitting with open questions. But that’s precisely what makes it worth protecting. The efficiency that comes from tidy endings may cost us the deeper work that only happens when we resist the urge to resolve.

What questions are you carrying right now that you haven’t tried to answer yet? And what might happen if you let them stay open a little longer?

This field note references the Movers Mindset episode «Partage» with Stany Foucher, published August 12, 2025.