Jeff Wetzler on tapping into the hidden wisdom of people around you with the Ask Approach

May 12, 2024

In this conversation with Jeff Wetzler he reflects on his new book "Ask: Tapping into the hidden wisdom of people around you".  We talk about the approach that it involves and the five key steps that it involves.  

But before that like all seeds podcast episodes we go back in time and find out about Jeff's origins and what has led him to write this book - because this show is not a moment in time or just talking about today, it is capturing a whole of life story and finding out why a person does what they do.  

So we talk about his childhood, early years growing up and moving around, what he studied and his first jobs so as to get a more complete picture.  I met Jeff through the Edmund Hillary Fellowship which we are both part of, and this is one of about 25 interviews with Fellows I've talked to over the years.  If you enjoy this why not look at the back catalogue too as there are evergreen conversations with almost 400 other people who share their wisdom on diverse topics - www.theseeds.nz  has more.

Website for the Ask Approach book: https://www.askapproach.com 

* Amazon link to order the book 
* Recent HBR article
* Free Assessment: https://Assessment.AskApproach.com  
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-wetzler-9ba3824/  
* Instagram: AskApproach

Current organization: www.TranscendEducation.org  

From the website, the 5 elements discussed in the podcast are:

"The Ask Approach™ is a research-backed method for learning from people around you, with five key steps:

- Choose curiosity, so you are genuinely interested in what others think, feel, and know
- Make it safe, so it’s more comfortable and appealing for others to tell you the truth.
- Pose quality questions, which uncover what’s most important to people
- Listen to learn, so you are truly hearing what matters most to them
- Reflect and reconnect, to translate what you hear into the right insights and actions"