Curated Questions: Conversations Celebrating the Power of Questions! The Key to Helping Others Find Their Own Questions! | Naomi Campbell #49
"Questions are an extremely sophisticated thinking skill that everyone can use and practice all the time." - Naomi Campbell
In this episode, host Ken Woodward is in conversation with Naomi Campbell, Director of the Right Question Institute (RQI) Legal Empowerment Program. They delve into the transformative power of teaching people to ask questions, highlighting its impact across various fields, including education, legal practice, and healthcare.
Naomi shares her journey from an inquisitive childhood encouraged by her family and school, through law school at Harvard, to her work in Mexico City advocating for migrant workers. The episode emphasizes the importance of questioning as a sophisticated skill that fosters personal agency and enhances democratic participation. Naomi also discusses RQI's unique methods for teaching this skill and how they support change agents in different communities.
The conversation provides insightful examples of how empowering people to formulate their own questions can lead to meaningful social change and better navigating decision-making systems.
Episode Notes
00:00 Powerful Questions As A Skill
01:50 Meet Naomi Campbell
03:33 The Importance of Asking Questions
07:30 The Role of Agency in Advocacy
10:59 Naomi's Law School Experience
11:38 The Socratic Method in Legal Education
15:49 Empathy in Legal Practice
18:53 Naomi's Work in Mexico City
20:04 Returning to the Right Question Institute
25:39 The Right Question Institute's Mission
27:22 Empowering Through Questions
30:55 Examples of Impactful Questioning
41:00 The Role of Questions in Healthcare
42:05 Challenges and Mistakes in Advocacy
42:42 Lessons Learned and Moving Forward
43:38 Embracing Change and Learning from the Field
44:17 Using the Method in Shifting Landscapes
44:51 The Virtuous Cycle of Curated Questions
45:56 Job Interview Questions: Examples and Inspiration
47:26 Iterating on Questions: A Skill for All Ages
49:23 Teaching Question Formulation in Classrooms
51:42 The Role of Questions in Education
53:44 Exciting Developments at RQI
56:49 Connecting Questions to Democracy
59:41 Micro Democracy: Participating in Everyday Decisions
01:00:22 Combating Misinformation Through Critical Thinking
01:01:11 Helping Others to Ask Their Own Questions
01:03:41 Challenges in Healthcare Adoption of Questions
01:05:53 The Importance of Patient Empowerment
01:08:22 Frameworks for Effective Questioning
01:09:58 The Power of Questions in Decision Making
01:13:10 Questions As A Tool To Amplify Unheard Voices
01:19:15 Takeaways and Reflections
Resources Mentioned
The Right Question Institute (RQI)
RQI's Legal Empowerment Program
Lynn Borton at Choose To Be Curious
Harvard Negotiation Workshop & the Alternative Dispute Resolution Programs
Centro de los Derechos del Migrante
Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions
SNAP Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
SNAP Employment and Training Programs
Questions Asked
When did you first understand the power of questions?
How do you help other people ask their own questions?
You said that, questions were encouraged what did that look like growing up for you?
What were the things that you think your parents did right in helping you be inquisitive about the world or encourage that?
What was it about the school environment that encouraged questions and is what you encountered?
Who was holding that power? who is holding the power of questions?
How can you use questions?
How do questions help people both feel and express empathy?
What kinds of questions are you asking when you are really listening to somebody?
How are questions important?
Is choosing to spend your life pursuing the questions that intrigue you common with your peers?
What is the school going to do to prevent this?
What are we going to do to prevent this from happening again in the future?
What am I really concerned about?
How could it be a better question?
How could it be a worse question?
What happens when you share the power of questions and how can that improve thinking, how can it improve advocacy? How can it improve democracy?
how are you seeing the importance of questions in relation to democracy?
Do you have any particular initiatives working on combating misinformation and disinformation?
What brings you here today?
Not only what questions do you have, but how can I help you ask questions?
How do I help the people that I'm trying to serve ask questions?
Who gets to ask the questions?
Who in fact asks the questions?
Who doesn't ask the questions?
What questions didn't I ask?
What questions should I have asked?
Have there been any areas where you thought there was gonna be more of a response or a richer return on investment?
What's the difference between a closed and an open-ended question?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of both types of questions and how can you use them strategically?
how do you order your questions?
How do you use closed and open-ended questions?
How do you ask questions about decisions?
What questions do you have?
Which questions of mine have to do with the reason behind the decision, and the why behind the decision?
What questions have to do with the process for making the decision?
How was the decision made?
Who was involved?
What information was used?
When was it made?
What meeting was held?
What role do I have?
What is the role of the people who are affected by the decision?
How did you come to this decision?
How might you come to this decision?
What can I do in this situation?
What can I do to better follow the doctor's instructions?
What can I do if my child is struggling in school?
Is this the transparency that's supposed to be happening?
Are people having a voice that's supposed to be happening?
Do they have a case here?
If we say we care about democracy and actually do, how do we uphold these principles?
What is your right now question?
How do we find the change agents in all of these fields? How do we find the people who care about agency, how do we support them, and how do we connect them to each other?
Instead of providing answers or asking all the questions yourself, how could you teach others to formulate their own powerful questions?
When facing a decision that affects you, what questions are you not asking about the process and your potential role in it?
What would change if you permitted yourself to ask terrible questions before expecting to get to the good ones?
Who in your sphere doesn't feel empowered to ask questions, and how could you help change that?