Meaningful Questioning

Questioning is an important communication skill. Asking good quality questions will help you to build a better understanding of any situation.

If you ask the right questions in the right way it shows that you have a genuine interest, it will also decrease the risk of misunderstandings.

Types of questions:

Open

Open questions require more than a '1 word' response. Explanatory answers are required and are useful for collating details. Open questions usually start with 'why, how or what'.

They can often be used to gain someone's perceptions in relation to a specific situation. For example: 'What happened at the meeting?'

Closed

Closed questions often require 1-word answers, often factual and are used to achieve basic concise answers. More likely to start with who, when or where. For example: 'How many people attended the meeting?'

Probing

Probing questions are a particular form of open question, designed to deepen knowledge and understanding of the information for both parties involved in the conversation. For example: 'What impact do you think this will have?'

Probing questions should challenge assumptions and can lead to more connective thinking.

Reflective

Reflective questions can have a dual purpose.

1. They can be used to reflect back to the individual to check understanding e.g., can I check...?'
2. It can also be used by the person answering the question to reflect on their chosen course of action.

Using a variety of questions will help to stimulate the conversation and enable you to build a quality picture.

Using the 'right' questions

Practice writing questions for a meeting that you have coming up - think about the purpose of the meeting and what information will help you.