Inventor Charles F. Kettering said, “There is a great deal of difference between knowing and understanding. You can know a lot about something and not really understand it.” That can also be said about people. You can know a lot about a person and still not understand him. More information isn’t always the answer. To really understand people, you must know what they want, and that requires you to go beyond the head and consider the heart.

When I want to really get to know someone, I ask three questions. People’s answers to these give me great insight into someone’s heart. The questions are:

• What do you dream about?
  
• What do you sing about?
  
• What do you cry about?
  

If you know the answers to those questions, you will be able to find common ground with someone and connect with them.

If there is  amore important key to communication that finding common ground, I certainly can’t think about it.

—John Maxwell, out of his upcoming book due 2010, work in progress