What is your rose, bud, thorn, and branch?

Whenever my kids would come home from school I would ask them how their day was and the usual answer was an unenthusiastic 'fine'. If I tried to dig a little deeper into school it was like pulling teeth and a typical one-word answer.

Fast forward to today. A coach taught me about the rose, bud, thorn, and branch technique. Essentially, this allows the listener to get a better understanding while the other person doesn't feel like they are being interrogated by the FBI. As we sat around the dinner table we would ask, what is your rose, bud, thorn, and branch for today. Each one represents an aspect of their day

Rose - What went well today?

Bud - What are you looking forward to?

Thorn - What didn't go well today?

Branch - Where do you need support?

It was amazing how effective it was to truly understand how your kids and your spouse are doing With the hustle and bustle of life, things going on with the important people in our lives can be easily overlooked.

Try these questions out at your next family dinner. I'd love to hear how it goes!