How to turn small talk into smart conversation

In a situation where people are gathered together, it always involves people trying to talk to each other. In these moments, we often fall short and can't think of anything to say, or worse; we fumble through with the aim of not crashing.

However, we can soar in conversations and learn to turn small talk into big ideas.

Ask open-ended questions that invite people to tell stories, rather than one-word answers.

Instead of "How was your day?" try, "What did you do today?" Other open-ended questions to try:

• "What's your story?"
• "What's the strangest thing about where you grew up?"
• "What's the most interesting thing that happened at work today?"
• "How'd you end up in your line of work?"
• "What was the best part of your weekend?"
• "What are you looking forward to this week?"
• "Who do you think is the luckiest person in this room?"