Questionable Thinking

No, this post isn't about weird thoughts in the deep dark crevices of your mind. When I talk about questionable thinking, I am referring to the thought process where you work out questions when being presented information. This is something I really need to work on because I am horrible at it. 

When I am in a large group where there is a presentation like a college course, company meeting, or user group presentation, I rarely ever ask any questions. I will either write the question down and look it up later or wait until there is an opportunity to ask the presenter in a smaller groups setting. I am not much of a public speaker to begin with, and I get intimidated in larger groups. The problem is that this takes away from the value of the group. 

Last month I really noticed how effective questionable thinking can be. I was in a user group meeting and there was a presenter at the front giving what they called a lightening talk. This is a short talk designed to give people experience speaking in public and giving them the opportunity to share some cool technology they are working with. The speaker made it through his presentation, and at the end asked if anyone had any questions. As often happens, the room sat there in complete silence. Then the main speaker who was going to  be presenting next raised his hand and started asking questions. 

When the main presenter started asking questions, they seemed almost like they were based on a formula. He may have even knew the answers, but being a professional public speaker, he asked questions that encouraged the lightening talk speaker, and also got additional participation from the crowd started. He didn't ask questions just to get a simple answer, he asked questions that encouraged an ongoing dialog. This really created a positive affect on the whole crowd. 

In large meetings like this there seems to be three types of Q&A results. The first is the non response where no questions are asked. This is tough situation for both the speaker and the audience because the speaker doesn't get any valuable feedback about his talk, and the audience misses the opportunity to get a deeper and more specific understanding of the topic. In this case, often what is missing is that one ice breaker question to get the ball rolling. 

One of the other Q&A results is where you have one or more people in the audience who comment in a way where it is obvious that they believe they are more of an expert on the topic. Sometimes these comments can break the ice and create more dialog, but other times they are just comments that are hard to respond to without causing a negative debate. Often times these comments could be rephrased as real questions where you can have a good discussion of the comparison of two ideas.

The best questions are the ones that encourage the speaker to continue and clarify his talking points. These questions give the speaker good feedback that will help him or her improve their talk in the future. In a good Q&A session, everyone in the room walks away smarter, and that should be the goal any lecture, meeting, or presentation. In hosted events, there really should be someone assigned to asking questions during the Q&A to get the ball rolling. 

One of the things I need to work on is how to create questions that engage a speaker and encourage a dialog. I would have a lot of trouble giving a talk in front of hundreds of strangers or even a dozen strangers, but being able to add value to someone else's talk by asking good questions is something I can learn to do. Learning to ask good questions would also have the side affect of being able to absorb the knowledge in a more concrete way. One of the best ways to learn is to be able to teach. Asking questions in such a way that you can share the knowledge you gained will get you halfway there.