{"id":10504,"date":"2015-04-22T13:36:08","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T11:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.targettraining.eu\/?p=10504"},"modified":"2018-06-06T12:29:31","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T10:29:31","slug":"open-up-your-small-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.targettraining.eu\/de\/open-up-your-small-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Open up your small talk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-2tp288-456b89c4b92540c28a7573cd5e118f91\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-2tp288-456b89c4b92540c28a7573cd5e118f91{\nheight:30px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-2tp288-456b89c4b92540c28a7573cd5e118f91 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><strong>Great small talkers know that the key to creating meaningful and significant conversation is a matter of asking the right questions. Asking the right questions can help build and develop stronger relationships. Your goal when small talking should be to try to learn about and connect with the other person, not just to pass the time with purposeless chatter. So what are the right questions?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">\u201cEvery great romance and each big business deal begins with small talk. The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.\u201d Bernardo J. Carducci<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>Open questions are key<\/h2>\n<p>You will never learn much about anybody by just discussing the weather. So what do you do? Closed questions like \u201cHow was your weekend?\u201d or \u201cWhat do you do?\u201d can be answered quickly, without thinking in one word or a short phrase. \u201cGood\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m an engineer\u201d don\u2019t teach us a lot about the other person. Equally important, closed questions focus simply on the person asking the question &#8211; we want to focus on the person answering the question.<\/p>\n<p>Open questions like \u201cWhat was the best part of your weekend?\u201d or \u201cHow did you end up in your field of work?\u201d encourage the other person to pause, think and reflect. Open questions need to be answered with feelings, opinions and stories. And this is when you might be surprised and truly learn something about the other person.<\/p>\n<p>So try using some of the open questions below the next time you\u2019re making small talk.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"319\">\n<h4><strong>Instead of . . .<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/td>\n<td width=\"319\">\n<h4><strong>Use. . .<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"319\">How was your weekend?<\/td>\n<td width=\"319\">What was the best part of your weekend?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"319\">What do you do for work?<\/td>\n<td width=\"319\">How did you end up in your field of work?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"319\">How was your day?<\/td>\n<td width=\"319\">What did you do today?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"319\">What\u2019s your name?<\/td>\n<td width=\"319\">What\u2019s your story?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"319\">How\u2019s the project going?<\/td>\n<td width=\"319\">What part of the project is the most important \/challenging to you?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"319\">Are you happy with your current supplier?<\/td>\n<td width=\"319\">Tell me about the last time you had a problem with your current supplier.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"319\">Is the project on time and in budget?<\/td>\n<td width=\"319\">How do you measure the project\u2019s success?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2>Try a 3:1 Ratio<\/h2>\n<p>Open questions can push the small talk further. However, you can\u2019t just ask open questions. Closed questions serve a purpose, too. Closed questions are a good way to warm up or get the conversation going in the first place. So try using 3 closed questions to 1 open question. This establishes a comfortable balance, but still allows for the opportunity to really connect with somebody.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s an example of questions to ask when making small talk with a stranger at a business convention.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Have you been to this convention before? <\/em>(closed question)<\/li>\n<li><em>Are there any speakers you\u2019re looking forward to hearing today? <\/em>(closed question)<\/li>\n<li><em>So where do you work? <\/em>(closed question)<\/li>\n<li><em>How did you end up working for XYZ company? <\/em> (open question)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remember small talk is not about avoiding uncomfortable silence, but a chance to create insightful conversation. So give the other person a chance to tell you their story by asking them open questions.<\/p>\n<h2>You might also like:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.targettraining.eu\/de\/5-tips-successful-networking\/\" target=\"_blank\">5 tips for successful networking <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.targettraining.eu\/de\/small-talk-never-waste-time-america\/\" target=\"_blank\">Why small talk is never a waste of time in America <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.targettraining.eu\/socializing-and-networking-in-english\/\" target=\"_blank\">Socializing and networking in English <\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Great small talkers know that the key to creating meaningful and significant conversation is a matter of asking the right questions. Asking the right questions can help build and develop stronger relationships. Your goal when small talking should be to try to learn about and connect with the other person, not just to pass the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":4363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[38,111],"class_list":["post-10504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-english","tag-networking","tag-socializing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Open up your small talk | Target Training GmbH<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Small Talk Tips: Read how to open up small talk with the right questions so it gets easier for you to connect with people you don&#039;t know yet.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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