Before we come to strategies for The Dreaded Q&A, I think it’s important you ask yourself as question:
Why the hell do you want people to be asking you questions anyway?
Aren’t some of your worst presentation memories about not answering a question well? Isn’t it just opening the floodgates to difficulty and embarrassment? Wouldn’t it be easier if you said, ‘Any questions?’, and then everyone sat silent for a few seconds, and then you just sat down?
I know you might actually be saying, ‘Yes, YES, it would be better.’
However, once you think about how the Q&A fits into things, it can help you to refocus on the purpose of your presentation.
Q&A and the purpose of presentations
If you’ve been planning from outcomes, you will have realised that as soon as you think about the response you’re looking for, things become much clearer.
Generally, the short/medium-term outcome for a presentation is conversation. The reason you’re giving the presentation is to spark that conversation and set the frame for it. And by conversation I mean the exchange of ideas in many formats as well as literal I-say-something-you-say-something.
If conversation is the thing…
If you want people discussing your topic, then surely Q&A is exactly what you’re looking for?
Ok, if your answer was no, let me add something else in.
If you want people discussing your topic, and you knew how to deal with even difficult questions well, isn’t Q&A exactly what you’re looking for?
I thought so.
(If you want to start thinking about how to deal with difficult questions, start here.)
Some reasons you might want people to ask you questions after a presentation:
~ You want to know what people don’t understand, so you can correct their understanding
~ You want to know people’s concerns about your topic, so you can help them deal with them
~ You want to know what’s of interest to your listeners
~ You want to look like you’ve been an interesting speaker
~ You can’t bear the silence anymore.
If you can work out why you want interaction, you can begin to work out how to make it happen.
Next article: What stops your listeners asking you questions?
Stay tuned.
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