Follow-up questions are free tuition. Ask at least one in every conversation this week.

A first question gets you the prepared answer, the one somebody has given many times before. The follow-up is where the real material sits, because it takes them past the summary and into the detail, the exception, the thing they actually believe. It costs nothing and most people never ask, which is why the same conversation hands one person a fact and another person an education.

In every conversation this week, ask one question that builds on what was just said rather than moving to a new topic. Count how often the second answer beats the first.