After working out why the hell you’d want a Q&A session anyway, we saw last time that there are some barriers to people asking questions after your presentation.
These include…
1. They are embarrassed to speak into the silence
2. They don’t have any questions
3. They haven’t had enough time to come up with a question
4. They don’t think their question is relevant/good enough
5. They don’t think the speaker actually wants questions
6. They need some seeds/suggestions for topics
7. They’re confused
8. They’ve forgotten their question
Looking at these, here are some strategies for how to get people past these hurdles.
Before your session
First off…
~ Let people know in advance that there will be questions
and
~Invite them to note down their questions
This might go something like this…
‘There’s no way I’m going to be able to cover this whole topic comprehensively in such a short time. I’m going to keep some time over at the end for questions you’re bound to still have. Too often by the time the speaker gets around to the Q&A I’ve forgotten the questions I wanted to ask, know what I mean? Feel free to write down your questions as we go so that when it’s time, you’ve got them to hand…’
Or however that might work in your own style, of course.
When it comes to asking for questions…
~ Suggest some topics
and
~ Include words other than ‘questions’
and
~ Have some pre-question private time
For example…
‘So, that’s enough of me talking. I bet you’ve still got some questions, some concerns, some unanswered thoughts. Maybe they’re about [list some aspects of your topic]. I tell you what, turn to the person next to you, say hi if you haven’t met them before, and just compare notes for a minute or two about what might still be in some way unresolved for you about this topic.’
Then nod, smile and turn away, leaving the group to follow instructions.
After a minute or two, turn back and ask who has the first question.
You’ll find you have a lot more questions, and some of the mad/strange/extremely detailed questions will have had their edges rubbed off by having been talked over.
As the questions start…
~ Reward the first and each subsequent question
Consciously or unconsciously, the group will be looking for how you deal with the first person brave enough to stick their hand up. Make sure that you are encouraging with the first question asker, give them your full attention, smile, be warm, maybe ask a small clarification question of their question, then answer their question. This way, people understand that asking questions is a good thing…
In general…
Make sure you follow Industry Standard Question Answering Best Practice, to include the whole group and keep the question asker happy too.
***
Of course, now you have all this interaction, you may find that you have some difficult questions to answer!
That would be time to go and look over the articles in the Communicating in High Stakes category…
Other articles you might be interested in:
- Eight reasons people don’t ask you questions after your presentation
- How to answer questions professionally
- Why your presentation needs a good Q&A
- How to invite people to follow your example in three minutes like Google webspam guy Matt Cutts
- How to make your presentation relevant by focusing on outcomes