Humble Inquiry

The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling

By: Edgar H. Schein

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The key to effective communication. Communication is essential in a healthy organization. But all too often when we interact with people - especially those who report to us - we simply tell them what we think they need to know. This shuts them down. To generate bold new ideas, to avoid disastrous mistakes, to develop agility and flexibility, we need to practice Humble Inquiry. Ed Schein defines Humble Inquiry as "the fine art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person." In this seminal work, Schein contrasts Humble Inquiry with other kinds of inquiry, shows the benefits Humble Inquiry provides in many different settings, and offers advice on overcoming the cultural, organizational, and psychological barriers that keep us from practicing it.

©2013 Edgar H Schein (P)2014 Gildan Media LLC

Critic reviews

“I have had the privilege of working with Ed Schein. Reading Humble Inquiry I could hear his voice asking me those humble questions that joined us in a mutual search for the answer. His book distills what he has learned and practiced in a lifetime of helping high-powered leaders be even more successful.”—Anthony F. Earley, Jr., Chairman, CEO and President, PG&E Corporation

Hear and question now

Edgar Schein has found some gems on asking questions with true curiosty while avoiding the temptation ti telk and advocate. characteristics that stand in opposition to our culture.

Learning by self discovery

Nicely put together, thought provoking and effectively delivered Narrated. Likes simple examples and the exercise for self study.

Extremely valuable

I wish this was required reading for all humans. Such valuable insights and well presented and explained ideas.

Highly recommend this book.
At least once.

Awesome Read

It really helped the way my team and I see ourselves and others. The art of leading through questions is truly an art.

William Shatner

I just felt like the guy narrating the book was very 'William Shatner' once I got past that it had a lot of great insights.

More technical than practical

I'm a pretty technical guy myself. In fact, I'm a very technical. I like doing research and learning about just about anything. This book read almost like a textbook. It was a lot of theory and ideas and was limited on practical application. As a business owner and professional coach, I was hoping to learn how to ask better questions that would help me make more progress with my employees and my coaching clients. I didn't get as much of that as I would have liked. There were certainly some thought provoking ideas in this audiobook and I did take away some useful information for sure, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

too general

while it has a very important concept, and some specific examples, I feel the book feel short in providing practical guidance how to apply the concepts.

the narration is good, but extremely slow. I listened to it at 1.5x speed, which made it reasonable.

Excellent content. Reading is dry. Get the Kindle Book.

Excellent content. Reading is dry. Get the Kindle Book.

Not the worst narration if you need it. But would read this one on Kindle if possible.

Great book for leaders

This book provides insightful and actionable tools for leaders and others on how to inquire humbly in the workplace, at home and in other aspects of life

A core truth behind Agile, Lean success

Doing more of value presumes you first know what is of value. Avoid the trap of your own limited perspective, learn to ask questions that enable agile success