2. Questioning techniques
There are a variety of questioning techniques that
can be adopted to get the best out of a situation.
Situations such as managing and coaching,
persuading, diffusing a tricky situation and
avoiding misunderstandings can be dealt with
using the various techniques.
3. Open questions
An open question will give the responder the
chance to give a lengthy answer. If you ask several
people the same open question all their answers
are likely to be different. These are mostly used to
gain a person’s opinion, find out how they feel
about something, demonstrate their knowledge of
an issue or give a description of something.
They’re useful for finding out more detail or simply
to generate an interesting conversation.
4. Closed questions
A closed question will elicit a single word or phrase in
response. This is useful if you want to easily be
able to analyse the type of response given by a
group of people. These types of questions are
most often used to get a clear understanding of a
point. They can also be used to bring a discussion
to a close by finding out if others agree or not.
5. Probing questions
These are questions that are added to allow the
respondent to expand on their original answer.
They are usually based on a reply to an earlier
question and are ideal for clarifying an issue. They
also enable to person asking to show an interest in
what has been said.
6. Leading questions
Leading questions are a way of influencing the way a
person will answer. They can include assumptions
about issues for example:
“how much rain will fall tomorrow” includes the
assumption that it will actually rain tomorrow.
They are used as a way of shutting off unwanted
answers.
7. Rhetorical questions
A rhetorical question is usually asked merely for
effect. Not really expecting an answer. For
example:
"If practice makes perfect, and no one's perfect, then
why practice?"
(Billy Corgan)
