Open-ended questions you can actually use

Most 1:1s die because the organizer asks closed questions. Here is a bank of open questions that work.

Open-ended questions cannot be answered with yes/no. They start with what, how, when, where, who, or 'tell me about'. They reveal stories, not opinions.

For Story of Self: What's a moment in your life when you first realized something was wrong with how things work? Who taught you to care about other people? When was a time you saw someone in your family do something brave?

For Story of Us: Who are your people? Who do you call when something good happens? Who's on your block / in your building / at your job that you trust?

For Story of Now: What's the hardest thing about [the issue] for you right now? If you could change one thing about [the situation] this year, what would it be? Who in your life would be most affected if we won?

For agitation: Is that how it should be? What would it look like if it were the way it should be? Who decided it would be this way?

For asks: What are you willing to do about it? Who else in your life should be in this conversation? Would you be willing to do X by Y?