Craig Constantine
Spaciousness
Creating space by holding on to questions Flow state is often spoken of as a goal for any mastery practice. In such a state, there’s a feeling of spaciousness, and room for creativity to blossom. We’re waiting. We’re waiting for the next idea. We’re not grasping at the first idea which comes to mind. Effective More →
Humanizing and fun
Where can you be more, “Yes, and…”? We feel such conversations “went well” and we’re glad for the humanizing experience. Good improv requires considerable effort. The act of “yes, and…” requires nimble thinking, an assumption of positive intent, and the leaning-in posture of engagement. Good-will is absolutely necessary for improv to work well. And it’s More →
Adversity and challenge
What is the difference between adversity and challenge in the context of conversations, and how can one navigate these dynamics to foster curiosity and deeper understanding? Exploring the fine line between adversity and challenge can transform the nature of our conversations. This article is based on the episode Adversity and Challenge from the Open + More →
Stop asking sense
Weird questions point to what’s interesting If what we seek is an exchange of ideas, then weird questions are better than clear questions. A great conversation isn’t us taking a test, with our conversation partner grading our thinking. We’re not trying to show our work. We shouldn’t be seeking affirmation. Asking weird questions of our More →
Crucial Conversations
Book Crucial Conversations by Switzler, Gregory, McMillan, et al., 2021 — Crucial Conversations provides powerful skills to ensure every conversation―especially difficult ones―leads to the results you want. Written in an engaging and witty style, it teaches readers how to be persuasive rather than abrasive, how to get back to productive dialogue when others blow up or clam up, More →
Reverberations
Could you begin your next conversation from an unusual notion? We could sit back and hope that a conversation moves into the new, and surprises us with those reverberations Hillman mentions. Hoping isn’t good enough. All good conversation has some element of surprise because it’s interesting when we discover something new; it doesn’t matter whether More →
Inter Views
Book Inter Views by James Hillman, 1998 — Inter Views is Hillman’s most biographical and self-revealing book with extraordinary, yet practical accounts of active imagination, writing, daily work, and symptoms in their relation to love. The book is also a radical deconstruction of the interview form itself, even though one reads along as if in a coffee conversation More →
Adversarial conversations
When the ground shifts beneath us during a conversation What happens when someone’s intentions shift during the conversation itself? What happens if we realize that we’ve misread other’s intentions? In any conversation, our intention matters. The quality of our conversations depends on our intentions—whether or not we state them explicitly—and on whether our intentions are More →
Self-awareness
Are we also looking for ourselves? Bringing self-awareness to mind, in a conversation, enables us to be more intentional about where we go next. Conversations can be an opportunity for us to practice self-awareness. This of course involves a delicate balance of being “in” the conversation enough to be a good conversation partner, while also More →
Listening
Book Listening by Jonathan Cott, 2020 — “All I really need to do is simply ask a question,” Jonathan Cott occasionally reminds himself. “And then listen.” It sounds simple, but in fact few have taken the art of asking questions to such heights–and depths–as Jonathan Cott, whom Jan Morris called “an incomparable interviewer,” one whose skill, according More →