Asking Questions

1
Asking Questions

• Questions are the key to understanding.
• Questions focus our attention.
• Questions make implied ideas explicit.
• Questions uncover hidden agendas.
• Questions reveal hidden opportunities and dangers.

2
How to Ask Questions

• Be respectful.
• It sounds like you have done a lot of work on
  this. I wonder if you have considered . . .
• Use tentative language.
• Im not sure how important this is, but can you
  help me understand . . .
• This idea is new to me, so I wonder if you could
  explain . . . .
• You probably already considered this, but I
  wonder if . . .
• Say what you are not saying.
• Im not saying I disagree with this proposal,
  but I wonder who will be impacted by . . .
• Im not saying we should reject this idea, but
  can you clarify . . .
• Discover and state your feelings about the topic
• As you were talking, I felt concerned about . .
  . Can you explain . . .

3
SPIN QUESTIONS

• Situation Questions
• Problem/Opportunity Questions
• Implications Questions
• Need Meeting Questions

4
Situation Questions

• Ask enough situation questions to have a good
  understanding of the situation, but beware of
  stopping here. Once you understand well enough,
  move to Problem/Opportunity, Implication and
  Need/Pay-off questions.

5
Situation Questions

• Information Questions
• The information is incomplete
• The context of the idea is not clear
• Clarification Questions
• General check-in
• Links between specific incident and general
  guideline are unclear.
• Original Context Questions
• Feeling Questions

6
Problem and Opportunity Questions

• Have higher value for actions than situation
  questions.
• Lead to possible actions or responses.

7
Problem and Opportunity Questions

• Practices Problem/Opportunity questions.
• Beliefs Problem/Opportunity questions.
• Feelings Problem/Opportunity questions.

8
Implication Questions

• Develop a need.
• Determine urgency of the need.
• Build on problem and opportunity questions.
• We ask these to determine how important it is to
  act on a new idea to solve problems or take
  advantage of opportunities.

9
Implication Questions

• Benefits of Acting, Costs of Not Acting
  Questions.
• Values or Beliefs Cost/Benefit Questions.
• Actions Cost/Benefit Questions.
• Relationship Cost/Benefit Questions.
• Weighing Values/Actions/Relationship
  Cost/Benefits.

10
Need-Meeting Questions

• Focus everyone on solutions.
• Uncover solution outcomes.
• Provide input for selecting best solutions.

11
Need-Meeting Questions

• Ethical implication questions.
• Relationship questions.
• Task questions.
• Objectives questions.