[acb-hsp] Questioning

[peter altschul]

The One Conversational Tool That Will Make You Better At 
Absolutely Everything
  By Shane Snow December 17, 2012
  Great insight moves your career, organization, or business 
forward.  The problem? Most people are terrible at asking 
questions.  Learn from the pros how to do it right.
  Ask yourself: If you could interview like Walter Cronkite, 
would you get more value from your meetings? Would your mentors 
become more valuable? Would your chance encounters with 
executives in elevators and thought leaders in conferences yield 
action items and relationships? The answer is yes.
  "As someone who had little to no experience in 
business--outside of running my own one-man freelancing 
operation--all that's really saved me (so far) from madness are 
the skills I used as a journalist," says Evan Ratliff, who wrote 
for magazines like The New Yorker before founding his startup, 
The Atavist.  One of those skills, he says, is "being able to 
formulate questions that deliver useful answers, whether from 
advisors or clients or whomever."
  Good questions can move your business, organization, or career 
forward.  They squeeze incremental value from interactions, the 
drops of which add up to form reservoirs of insight.  Of all the 
skills innovators can learn from journalists the art of expert 
QandA is the most useful.
  The problem is, most of us ask terrible questions.  We talk too 
much and accept bad answers (or worse, no answers).  We're too 
embarrassed to be direct, or we're afraid of revealing our 
ignorance, so we throw softballs, hedge, and miss out on 
opportunities to grow.
  But we don't have to.  The following advice can make you a much 
better interrogator, not to mention conversationalist:
  Don't Ask Multiple-Choice Questions When people are nervous, 
they tend to ramble, and their questions tend to trail off into 
series of possible answers.  ("What's the most effective way to 
find a good programmer? Is it to search on Monster or to go on 
LinkedIn or to talk to people you know or ...  uh...  uh...  
yeah, is it to, um...is there another job site that's gd...?")
  You're the one with the question; why are you doing all the 
talking? Terminate the sentence at the question mark.  It's OK to 
be brief.
  Great Questions At A Glance
  Don't ramble on--terminate the sentence at the question mark.
  Get comfortable with silence.
  Start with "who, what, when, where, how, or why" for more 
meaningful answers.
  Don't fish for the answer you want.
  Stop nodding if you don't understand--ask a follow-up instead.
  If you get a non-answer, approach it again from a different 
angle.
  Rephrase the answer in your own words.
  Don't be afraid to ask dumb questions.
  On that note, learn to be comfortable with silence.  Allow your 
respondent to think; donbt jump in with possible answers after a 
few seconds pass.  You won't get answers if you keep talking, and 
you'll rarely learn anything if you offer all the answers.
  Questions that start with "who," "what," "where," "when," 
"how," or "why" have high probability of thoughtful responses, 
whereas those that begin with "would," "should," "is," "are," and 
"do you think" can limit your answers.  (Of course, if you're 
trying to limit an answer to "yes" or "no," you can do that, but 
if you're seeking advice or stories, opt for open-ended).
  Good: "What would you do?" Bad: "Would you do X?" Terrible: 
"Would you do X or Y or Z or Q or M or W or...?"
  Adding a simple "what" to a bad question beginning with "do you 
think" is all it takes to generate an open-ended response.  
Practice asking questions that begin with the 5Ws (and H) to turn 
duds around.
  Don't Fish "The really `bad` questions are leading ones--the 
questions where you're fishing for a particular answer," says 
veteran journalist Clive Thompson, who writes for Wired and The 
New York Times.  "You have to avoid those at all costs."
  First of all, if you know the answer, why are you asking?
  If you're seeking confirmation on something you already 
suspect, ask objectively, and ask directly.  You'll come off as 
confident (and less of a chump), and you'll get more honest 
answers.
  Good: Do you like Spotify's new discovery feature Bad: What do 
you think of Spotifybs terrible new discovery feature?
  Interject With Questions When Necessary "Stopping a 
conversation to ask the right questions is far superior to 
nodding along in ignorance," Ratliff says.
  A good journalist will steer a conversation by cutting in with 
questions whenever they need.  This helps reign in ramblers and 
clarify statements before the conversation gets too far ahead to 
go back.  Notice how great interviewers like Larry King or John 
Stewart maintain control of their conversations; itbs almost 
always through polite interruptions--not with things they want to 
say, but with questions that keep the QandA on course.  Mature 
people will rarely be upset by interruptions that let them 
continue talking.  To the contrary, additional questions make 
people feel like they're being listened to.
  Field Non-Answers By Reframing Questions Later Journalists are 
used to speaking with publicists and well-rehearsed 
businesspeople with whom it's often hard to pin down a straight 
answer.  Sometimes non-answers are delivered deliberately; often 
they're the results of simple rambling.  (How many times have you 
forgotten the question by halfway through your response?).
  In these cases, you can follow up with either a direct question 
("So, how many dollars per month will this cost?"), or by 
slipping in a variation of the question later into the QandA.  
Journalists often have to probe from multiple angles before 
unlocking the information they need.  As long as you are sincere, 
you won't come off badly if you ask clarifying questions about 
the same sorts of things.  You won't come out as empty handed, 
either.
  Repeat Answers Back For Clarification Or More Detail If you're 
getting vague responses--or complicated ones for that 
matter--restate the answers in your own words.  ("So, your 
software will email me any time there are important news stories 
in my industry?")
  This will typically yield either a definitive "that's correct," 
or a clarification with extra detail.  Either way, it's useful 
for pinning down an answer.
  I know some people who deliberately mis-paraphrase respondents' 
answers in order to incite quick, and often less careful, 
responses--or in some cases catch someone who's lying.  (Be your 
own judge of when and whether you feel comfortable employing such 
tactics.)
  Don't Be Embarrassed The worst kind of question is the one left 
unasked.
  "There's typically no point in pretending you know something 
when you don't," Ratliff says.  "As a reporter the goal is to 
gather information, not to impress your subjects.  You'd think it 
would be different in business, but it's not."
  People are much kinder than we often give them credit for.
  "I don't let questions from entrepreneurs drive me crazy," says 
Fred Wilson, Partner at Union Square Ventures, a man who is 
frequently mobbed by entrepreneurs at events.  "They are all 
trying so hard to get where they want to go.  I just try to give 
them the best answer I can."
  And if you ask a bad question from time to time, it's OK.  It 
happens to the best of us.  Writes legendary business thinker 
Seth Godin in response to my query about how to ask good 
questions, "I'm not sure I have a useful answer for you!"
  Shane Snow is a New York City-based technology writer and 
cofounder of Contentlyddcom
  Copyright B) 2012 Mansueto Ventures LLC.  All rights reserved.