Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs in Leadership and Life

Globally recognized expert on learning and leadership, Jeff Wetzler offers a hands-on, surprisingly effective way to find out what others really think, know, and feel. Ask leads to smarter decisions, more creative solutions, and deeper relationships.

Too often, we don’t find out what’s truly on others’ hearts and minds because we don’t know how to ask the right questions in the right ways. Co-founder of Transcend and former international business consultant and Teach for America executive Jeff Wetzler wants to show you how to fix that. In Ask, he brings you a powerful method called The Ask Approach(TM), based on a simple premise: that tapping into what other people truly think, know, and feel is a game-changing superpower.

In Section I, Wetzler reveals the most common things that people think and feel but often keep to themselves, as well as the key reasons why they choose to withhold information that could be valuable to you and your organization.

1. Choose Curiosity: How can you awaken your curiosity to make new discoveries and unexpected connections?
2. Make it Safe: How do you make it easier for people to tell you hard things?
3. Pose Quality Questions: What questions will best tap into the wisdom of anyone you ask?
4. Listen to Learn: How can you hear what someone is really trying to tell you?
5. Reflect & Reconnect: How do you turn talk into action?

Section III helps you make asking an everyday superpower - not only for yourself but also for your team and organization, as well as for the next generation and society at large.
The skills and messages of Ask could not be more timely. In a fast-changing world where AI is supplanting an increasing range of skills, the ability to learn from and connect with other people is one of the most important, fulfilling and uniquely human capabilities to master.

Jeff Wetzler co-founded Transcend, a nonprofit that supports communities to create and spread equitable learning environments. Prior to Transcend, he spent a decade in senior leadership roles at Teach for America. For the majority of that time, Wetzler served as Chief Learning Officer and EVP of Teacher Preparation, Support, and Development, where his teams focused on optimizing the training and ongoing support of TFA’s thousands of corps members nationally. Before that, he worked at Monitor Group, an international consulting firm, where he advised executives, focusing on strategy, adult learning, and organizational development.