by Ken Winston Caine

Like this little car?

This is the 1957 Isetta Velam. It got between 50 and 70 miles per gallon, depending upon whether you drove like a feeble grandpa or like a hotrodder.

It sat two people.

The front was a hatch and opened outward with the steering wheel and instrument cluster attached. Two adults could easily crouch and slide onto the single bench seat, pull shut the front, and nuzzle as they cruised.

The speedometer was round and fit in the center of the steering wheel.

For perspective, the boy in the photo below is 5’3″ tall. Probably at least 3 or 4 inches taller than I was when I first inspected one of these in the parking area on the lawn of the Friends Meeting House in Waynesville, Ohio, in 1957 or 1958 or 1959.

A number of manufacturers, including BMW, operating in different countries, produced versions of the Isetta under license from Iso, its Italian designer and original manufacturer. The Velam version was made in France and was possibly the most stylish. There was a luxury version of the Velam as well. Was pretty rare to see any Isetta on streets and highways in the United States back then, as it was primarily imported, one car at a time, by individuals who had seen or driven them in Europe.

Want one of these cute little cars of your own?

You can have one in the next five minutes. Free. Really: (more…)

by ken winston caine

The questions you ask and choose to explore shape the outcomes you achieve. The trick is to ask powerful questions.

They cut to the chase. They move you forward quickly and smartly.

Asking powerful questions is at the heart of “coaching” as it was developed by Thomas Leonard. And I’ve been collecting lists of powerful questions, or coaching questions, for 11 years — ever since I was first exposed to Leonard’s approach.

But simply being armed with a mile-long list of powerful questions does not make one a good coach. Or guarantee you magnificent, rapid, sustainable personal success. The good coach and the smart achiever know how to ask the right type of question at exactly the right moment.

Better, I think, to understand what a powerful question is, so that you can instinctively pose one when it is needed, than to have a long list of questions to sort through. (Though a list is valuable.)

So what is a powerful question?

The best explanation I have come across comes not from the world of life coaching or business coaching or corporate coaching, but from pioneers of The World Cafe process, Juanita Brown and David Isaacs.

They write, on their website, that a powerful question has eight defining characteristics: (more…)