Open ended questions

Lately, I have been learning about open ended questions.  By definition an open ended question is one that can not be answered with a yes or no reponse.  For instance, "Did you have a good day?" is not open ended, whereas "how was your day?" is more open ended, even though most people would consider them largely the same question.

Another concept along the same lines is to avoid using the word why in quetions because it sounds accusatory and makes people defensive.  For instance you would say "What makes you feel that way?" rather than "Why do you feel that way?"  When you ask "What makes you feel that way?" you are indirectly validating their feelings.