Most questions are too long.
Have you ever lost track of what someone is asking in the middle of a long question? or reached the end and realized…I’m not sure what you’re looking for.
Here’s an example during questioning from a 2023 House Subcommittee meeting:
“Can you talk about the delicate balance of how do you protect ratepayers, how do you deal with the rules and regulations, and what we can do to streamline this so that we are protecting water quality in every way, but also allowing for a good playing field for you all to operate? And I only have about 10 seconds, so, if you can keep it brief. Sorry.”1
Wow! Just imagine if that question was directed to you. Where do you begin? Which question do you answer first? and do you even remember what the first question was?
Conversely, imagine if the question had been:
- Can you talk about how to balance the needs of all the parties?
See how much simpler that is? See how much faster it turns the question over to the other party, so they can either respond, or ask for clarification? And because it’s short, the question-asker can intervene quickly if the responder doesn’t understand or goes off in an unintended direction. Now the parties are talking, instead of trading monologues.
The most powerful questions are short. If possible, ask your question concisely:
- What do you really want from this?
- What’s the most important issue here?
- How will we pay for this?
If the context is critical, you can start with framing, then ask your short question:
- Samantha, you’ve just described 3 potential solutions to meet the timeline. Which one do you recommend?
Or, you can ask a short question first (a preview), then explain the details, then repeat the question:
- Samantha, I’d like to hear your recommendation. The way I heard it, you just described 3 potential solutions…we hire more staff, we reduce the deliverables, or we change the quality level. Which one do you recommend?
Make your questions more concise, and you’ll have better, more on-topic discussion that gets to the heart of the issue more quickly.
To learn more about how The Questions Company can help you and your team ask more powerful questions, please schedule a consultation.
- Question from Rep. David Rouzer, North Carolina, Chairman of Subcommittee on Water Resources & Environment. May 16, 2023.
https://www.congress.gov/event/118th-congress/house-event/LC72886/text ↩︎
