Asking open-ended questions that start with 'how', 'what', or 'why' invites more expansive and detailed responses.

Close-ended questions act as barriers. They start with words like 'did you' or 'will you', forcing a simple, binary choice. Open-ended questions do the opposite. By starting with 'how', 'what', or 'why', we remove the boundaries and invite the speaker to share a narrative. This simple linguistic flip transforms a rigid interrogation into a flowing, cooperative conversation.