Mastering the Art of Learning: From Novice to Expert

Transcript

Mastering the Art of Learning: From Novice to Expert

[00:00:00] Alexander: Welcome to another episode of the effective statistician. Today we want to talk about stories and the power of stories. Stories [00:00:10] can be an amazing tool for communication. Super powerful. There’s this quote that who asks, who answers. is a person that [00:00:20] leads. And there’s a lot in truth in this. However, we can also mess up with stories.

[00:00:28] Alexander: There’s a funny story [00:00:30] once during the COVID pandemic when there was homeschooling that I have seen with my child. So he got homework, of course, homework, it was [00:00:40] during the pandemic, everybody was homeschooling, from the teacher. And the teacher asked ten questions. And they were all [00:00:50] like this.

[00:00:51] Alexander: Are you are able to explain x, y, z? Do you know about [00:01:00] this and that, and all these kind of different closed questions. And my, at the time, I think [00:01:10] something like 8-year-old, what did he do? He said, Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, ten times, and was [00:01:20] done. And when we saw that, we were kind of laughing, yeah, he answered all questions correctly.[00:01:30] 

[00:01:31] Alexander: Yes, I am able to explain these things. You ask a closed question so you get a yes no answer. That is the correct answer [00:01:40] to a yes no question. Probably the intent of the teacher was of course something different. But she asked a [00:01:50] closed question so she gets a closed answer. Yes, no. Questions and how [00:02:00] often you ask these make a huge difference.

[00:02:05] Alexander: Recently, at a leadership training we had these kind of conversations [00:02:10] in terms of negotiation, and we played a typical scene. So there was a participant from the training, [00:02:20] and I was playing the physician that wants to have more tables. And so I said, I, you know, I need these 100 [00:02:30] tables. And then she asked, started to ask questions.

[00:02:35] Alexander: Okay, what do you need this for? Yeah, I need these to write [00:02:40] an abstract. What do you need the abstract for? Well, I want to go to this conference and present this abstract. And the abstract tagline [00:02:50] is there. And that went on for some time and then she stopped. What she didn’t ask [00:03:00] was, why do you want to go to this conference?

[00:03:05] Alexander: What is the purpose behind that? What do you want to achieve by [00:03:10] submitting an abstract there? What is the underlying thing? And this is so, so important. In negotiation, [00:03:20] in conflict resolution, and all these kind of different situations, you need to understand what is the intent behind it. In [00:03:30] negotiation, I very often speak about the difference between intent, And position.

[00:03:38] Alexander: Position is what the person [00:03:40] asked for. I want 100 tables. Intent is what is the underlying goal of that. And very often you only get to the [00:03:50] intent if you ask lots of lots of different questions.

[00:03:54] Alexander: And so keep asking these questions until you’re really sure you are [00:04:00] at the intent.

[00:04:01] Alexander: Another thing, when you do networking, great questions will make a huge difference. [00:04:10] Gary Ivan talks about his story in terms of doing networking with, you know, important stakeholders that he has, you know, [00:04:20] at the time. So these were group leaders or directors of other groups his team was working with, and he would have [00:04:30] Often kind of meetings with them, very often in a more kind of casual way, maybe over lunch or over coffee.

[00:04:37] Alexander: And he would ask a very, very typical [00:04:40] question. What are the things that keep you up at night? And sometimes the other person would kind of open up and speak about kind of what are [00:04:50] the real problems. Often, they would kind of think like, well, from a statistical point of view, like, Because Gary was a statistician and then started, [00:05:00] and then Gary would stop and say, no, no, irrespective of whether I’m a statistician, what are the things that keep you up at night?

[00:05:08] Alexander: This is really important to kind of [00:05:10] set the frame correctly, because otherwise, Gary would have only gotten problems where the other person thought, oh, [00:05:20] Gary could help potentially. Now, the other person, of course, doesn’t know what Gary can really do. That is, these are only [00:05:30] things that Gary knows. And that is the same for when you talk to other people.

[00:05:35] Alexander: When you talk to someone within the regulatory, [00:05:40] within HR, within medical, clinical, clinical operations, in HTA, all these kind of different things. [00:05:50] They will often not know what you’re really capable of. So take away any kind of restrictions that they have in mind. [00:06:00] Another thing, one of my leadership trainers told the story once and [00:06:10] yes, I’m doing leadership training.

[00:06:11] Alexander: I’m actually participating in leadership training because I always want to do leadership training. and learn more about things in terms of leadership. And [00:06:20] every good leadership trainer always kind of looks for other trainers that help them. So this leadership trainer told the following [00:06:30] story. He had this kind of problem and he wanted to solve it.

[00:06:36] Alexander: However, he To actually solve it, he [00:06:40] needed to invest 3000 euros. And he thought, wow, that’s really crazy lots of money. And so he [00:06:50] went to this person in the in this department he was working as. I don’t remember whether that was finance or marketing or something like this. And said, [00:07:00] I think I have a solution, but it’s far too expensive.

[00:07:06] Alexander: And then the other person said, okay, tell me what it [00:07:10] costs. And he said, ah, it’s really expensive. I think potentially I can get it for three thousand. And the other person was laughing. Oh, [00:07:20] let me show you. And then he showed kind of all the investments and numbers and things like that. And these three thousands were [00:07:30] just lost in the roundings.

[00:07:33] Alexander: These were peanuts for the other person. Don’t assume [00:07:40] something. Always ask. Don’t take things for granted that this will always take that long, or this will be [00:07:50] always that expensive, or this is so important, or this is less important. Ask. Clarify your assumptions. Don’t just go [00:08:00] into things and assume people know.

[00:08:03] Alexander: Assume certain things. With not clarified and conflicting assumptions, there’s so [00:08:10] many problems coming from this. And you can only solve these by asking questions. Checking your [00:08:20] assumptions.

[00:08:20] Alexander: So, ask better questions. Ask open questions. Ask for what are the underlying things. [00:08:30] If you delegate things, you can ask questions like, what do you need from me to be successful here? [00:08:40] Great question. So, ask valid questions. That will make a huge impact. in your [00:08:50] professional life. If you want to learn more about all things leadership, there’s a lot more episodes about leadership that I already have here recorded on [00:09:00] the podcast.

[00:09:01] Alexander: There’s also a lot more coming up, so please subscribe to the podcast. And if you want to become really, really influential [00:09:10] as a leader, I have a look into the Effective Statistician Academy. There’s a couple of things you can get from there that will make you a more [00:09:20] effective statistician, a more influential statistician.

[00:09:24] Alexander: So stay tuned, have fun, and be an effective [00:09:30] statistician.