If I were your colleague, I would be thinking the following things: Your assumption is that you are stupid. That is an untrue assumption. I will remove that assumption by replacing it with a freeing one: you are intelligent. I will put that freeing assumption inside a question and link it to your goal of talking to Neil. The question would then look like this: If you knew that you are intelligent (freeing assumption), how would you talk to Neil (goal of the session)?
