This document discusses questions and questioning techniques. It covers that questions can drive productive conversations, the right question depends on context and situation. It also discusses ways to frame questions, such as Bloom's Taxonomy, and types of questions like closed and open. The document emphasizes conscious questioning with clear intention and preparation based on understanding purpose, situation, people, and facilitator self-knowledge. It provides guiding principles for questioning including customizing for context and maintaining a participant-observer stance. The document is a resource for learning about effective questioning.

1. Thinking Questions
Balaji Sathram, Coach
sathrambalaji@gmail.com

2. What do you know about Questions?

3. • Questions make things happen; the engine that drives healthy and
productive conversations.
• A good question at the appropriate time can set change in motion
for your clients by creating insight or inspiration
• The right question is the one that works best at a particular moment
in a particular situation with a particular group of people. Sometimes
a question works brilliantly with one group and not at all with
another—context is critical.

4. Framing Questions
• There are many ways to frame questions
• Bloom’s taxonomy is based on six categories: knowledge, comprehension,
application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation (Bloom, 1956).
• The focused conversation approach has four levels of questions: objective, reflective,
interpretive, and decisional (Stanfield, 2000a).
• The critical thinking community talks about three types: those with a right answer,
those with better or worse answers, and those with as many answers as there are
human preferences (Paul and Elder, 1996).
• Other ways to classify questions use a variety of labels: hypothetical, lower-and
higher-level, factual, abstract, convergent, divergent, focused, conceptual,
philosophical, dichotomous, analytical, strategic, operational, and so on.
Rather than depending on any single question taxonomy for all situations,
you need to base your questioning on the type of conversation required to
achieve a group’s objectives.

5. 4+ __ =10

6. __ + __=10

7. Closed and Open Questions
• Closed questions require simple, specific answers and are most
appropriate in a situation where one answer is preferred over another
(yes or no, right or wrong, more or less). For example, “How many
people are on this team?”
• Open questions can’t be answered simply. They require some
thought, often include choices, and result in a developed answer. For
example, “What factors contributed to your success this year?”

8. CONSCIOUS QUESTIONING
• Questions that work have intention; they enable a group to get where it wants to go. They are
created deliberately to support achievement of the purpose and objectives of a process and are
situated within a process framework that guides participants toward expected outcomes.
• To create effective questions that have meaning in a specific context and process, facilitators need
to know:
• The purpose and objectives of the process
• The situation and related facilitation challenges
• The people involved
• The process frameworks required to address the facilitation challenges
• Themselves
• Conscious questioning is based on clear intention and comprehensive preparation. It includes
time spent learning about your client, the organization, the situation, and the participants. It can
also involve reviewing background documents, interviewing people, summarizing main issues,
and researching recent publications.
• The final challenge—knowing yourself as a facilitator—is grounded in how you understand and
apply your core values.

9. SKILLS FOR CONSCIOUS QUESTIONING
• Eight guiding principles and related skills support you in creating and
asking questions
• Customize for context.
• Create inviting questions.
• Clarify assumptions.
• Ask with sensitivity.
• Pay attention to risk and anxiety.
• Maintain a participant-observer stance.
• Consider “why?” carefully.
• If in doubt, check it out.

10. Where can these Questions be used?
• In all the conversations you would be in
• No boundaries
• Scrum ceremonies
• Conversations with stakeholders
• Conversations with clients
• Requirements elicitation

11. Questions-Handout
• Read the questions and make a note of the questions you like

12. Let’s Practice
• Needs to build an application for employee management in his
company
• Needs to build a website for Flower shop

13. Designing a Question
• What is the context?
• Why are you doing this?
• What is it that you hope to achieve?
• What outcomes would you like to see?
• What is in it for the participants?

14. Reference and Further reading

15. Thank you
If I were to really know who
you are, What would you want
me to know about you?