Questions for Meaning

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Questions for Meaning
QUESTIONS FOR
MEANING
Use questions to find out what is going on

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Learn.
Questions for
Meaning
Introduction: Writer Allan Pease says that there is no such thing as a natural-born
salesperson, negotiator, or people manager. When someone succeeds at any of these
roles, it is down to one thing: their ability to ask questions about the other person
they're talking to. In counselling, your ability to discover information and bring clarity to
the way ahead depends primarily on what questions you ask.

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An open question invites the replier to go where they want
1. OPEN
QUESTIONS
https://pixabay.com/en/old-door-ancient-door-243039/
The first stage of counselling is to explore the
problem. This is when you need to use open
questions. Open questions do what they say they
do: they open people up. These are questions
that can't be answered by a single word or
phrase, such as "Yes", "No", "red", "18". Instead,
they force people to give you explanations. For
example, "What do you mean by that?" or "Could
you tell me what happened next?"

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2. CLOSED
QUESTIONS
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Closed questions work like a filter
Closed questions do the opposite of open
questions: they close people down to one word
or one phrase answers. That's why they are
helpful in giving factual answers or checking what
people have said. Closed questions often begin
with "Who?", "Where?", "When?", and "Which?"
type questions, as in "When did this happen?"
and "What did he say?"

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/gdsteam/29310846124/
Use summarising questions to check you understand
3.
SUMMARISING
QUESTIONS
Summarising questions can be used to sum up
information. They are useful when you want to
boil issues down. In a counselling session, you
should get into the habit of asking summarising
questions at the end of each stage, ie at the end
of contracting, exploring, challenging, and
solution-hunting. They ensure you understand
what your employee has said and help you move
on.

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4. THE
REFLECT-BACK
QUESTION
https://pixabay.com/en/business-woman-opening-door-1997286/
Use the reflect back question for more info
Questions for confirmation and response are
valuable when you want to confirm or check
information with the other person. There are 3
kinds of question in this category: reflect-back;
empathic; and tentative hunch questions. The
reflect-back question simply echoes what
someone has just said. "I couldn't do it." "You
couldn't?". Invariably, people respond by giving
you more information.

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/barkbud/4663269309/
Check whether your hunches are right
5. TESTING
OUT
QUESTIONS
The Empathic Response and Tentative Hunch are
ways of testing out what you think is going on
with the other person. The empathic response is
your a way of showing someone you recognize
what they might be feeling, as in "I bet that really
hurts right now, doesn't it?". The Tentative Hunch
puts forward a theory for the person to confirm,
as in "You smiled when I mentioned her name. Do
I sense you get on really well?"

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6. DIG DEEPER
OR STAND
BACK?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/poptech/4911474596/
Use questions to explore what someone means
In counselling, people are often dealing with
issues that may be unclear to them. They will
often use language that masks what they truly
mean. As a helper in the process, you can ask two
types of question that can either dig deeper into
what is going on, known as chunking down; or
stand back and look at things from a wider
perspective, known as chunking up.

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You can get some meanings by analysing facts
7. CHUNKING
DOWN
https://pixabay.com/en/philatelist-stamp-collection-stamp-1844080/
Here are 3 examples of dig deeper, or chunking
down, questions that use the reflect-back style to
go deeper into what people actually mean:
a. deletions, as in: "it's obvious what she wants."
You ask, “Obvious?"
b. distortions, as in: "You'll think me stupid.." You
ask, “Stupid?"
c. generalizations, as in: "She always does that..."
You ask, “Always?"

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8. CHUNKING
UP
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trekkingrinjani/4930552641/
You can make sense of things by seeing the big picture
Here are 4 examples of chunking up questions
that take a broader view:
a. new angles, as in: "Can you see something
positive in not getting the job?"
b. wider angles, as in: "How do you think this will
look in a few years' time?"
c. counter-evidence, as in: "You say that you don't
get on. What about other times?"
d. metaphor, as in: "what does it feel like?"

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This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
Any exchange with others is a live, un-rehearsable, and unplannable exercise. How successful you
are depends on the range of questions you can call upon and your skill at using them in the right
place and at the right time. When well-chosen and well-put, good questions are your route to a
successful counselling outcome.

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