prepared question

Situation (the story of a student of the University of Practical Psychology): End of the month. tax payment deadline. A young specialist generates a payment order with a strong overstatement of the amount of tax payable to the budget. The manager signs this payment order. The payment «goes» to the bank for execution.

After 2 hours, I check the payments and see that the amount of this tax is much higher than the amount due. I invite a young specialist. Our dialogue:

I: “Irina, in the payment order No … (details), there are doubts about the amount, it is necessary to double-check and clarify the correctness of the calculation.”

And: (after 4 minutes he runs into the office, turns pale, blushes — he doesn’t understand anything) I incorrectly calculated the tax, I mistakenly indicated the annual amount, instead of the monthly one. What will happen now? I’ll be fired? Will I be overpaid? …. (further a stream of unprepared questions from the position of the victim).

I understand that I need to take matters into my own hands. After a series of certain actions (a call to the bank, a call to the tax office, the calculation of the amount of overpayment, the calculation of the amount of risks and bonuses from the current situation — a picture of the final result emerges). Next, a conversation with the leader using the «Designation of intentions» and «Prepared question» techniques.

Me: “G.A., I have an important and urgent conversation with you for 15-20 minutes.”

G.A: “Okay, I propose to discuss it right now!”

Me: Stage 1. (Introduction to the situation based on the facts.) » Today is the day for paying corporate income tax and the tax was transferred in the amount of the annual amount. This results in a large overpayment to the budget.

Stage 2. (What has already been done) 1. At the moment, it is not possible to cancel the payment (checked with the bank). 2. There is an exact amount (calculated and verified, and it exceeds our obligations by 10 times. 3. The risks and bonuses of the consequences of this overpayment for our organization are calculated.

Stage 3. (Solution options) There are the following solutions to this situation: 1. Leave the overpayment to the Budget in the context of this tax and it will last for at least 5-7 years (calculated based on the results of our activities). Application for crediting the amount in future periods for this tax.

2. Write an application to the tax office for a refund of the overpayment amount (they will return it, while there is a risk of a desk / on-site audit).

3. Write an application for a credit with other taxes (to write an application every time you need a credit between other taxes, there is a risk of verification).

Stage 4. (Open question to the leader!) G.A. what will be your solution?

In this situation, the head chose to leave the overpayment to the budget. Even this was happy)).

We agreed with Irina that she would continue to be attentive. She analyzed her mistake and the reasons for its occurrence. Got experience. Thank you for your help in resolving this issue. Yes, and employees now know what a prepared question is, they have become more independent and self-confident.

Prepared questions are loved by all business people, although by this they mean two quite different things. In business communication or at a meeting, a prepared issue is an organizational issue agreed with all responsible persons, where everything is already clear with both resources and deadlines. Another thing is the situation of communication, where a prepared question is an intelligible question in which the author has taken care to make it easy for another person to answer it. In this article, we are talking about this particular case, about a communicatively prepared question.

Usually people do not want to think, many are used to: “I will ask — they will answer me. Why think something? Such people ask unprepared, dark questions, where there is clearly not enough information to solve, and it is not clear what the person wants …

Typical questions for a counseling psychologist: “Hello, my husband is cheating on me. How can I get his love back? or “I get irritated all the time and there is nothing I can do about it. What should I do about it? — How to answer such a question if the interlocutor has not prepared anything for the answer?

A student of the University of Practical Psychology asks the teacher: “How can I formulate the volume of the planned result for the Total Yes exercise so that the result is measurable?” — it seems that the student just wants the teacher to do his work for him.

If a person, before asking a question, thought through the situation, tried to collect all the necessary information available to him, decided for himself what he wanted and what there were at least some solution options (a bad solution option and a terrible solution option are already options ), then it’s easier to talk to him. If you want to be talked to and productively, prepare. Prepared by you questions make communication more productive and more enjoyable, at least for your interlocutor.

In this regard, a prepared question is a variant of constructive interaction, and an unprepared question is often not just a difficulty, but also a conflict generator: it irritates both as a manifestation of disrespect and simply as a manifestation of stupidity.

If the person simply described the problem and asks, “What should I do?” is an unprepared question. The fog is complete: it is usually not clear what the author wants, what he can do, what he tried, what are the results of his attempts … Your question will be more prepared if you tell that on this issue you already know what you can do, what attempts have already been made and why the standard answers did not help, among which you have already heard such and such … In fact, in such a question you already give options for solutions and simply advise what is better to choose. See how best to formulate a constructive appeal for help…

Where would it be appropriate for you to make your questions more prepared? First of all, it is in demand in business communication, especially in communication with management. However, in fact, they are needed in the family, in communication with children, and with the husband (wife), in conversations with parents and, for sure, in communication with psychologists for consultations.

Sometimes people ask questions when something was not clear to them during a conversation and they want to clarify it. Fine? Yes, but the style is important, how the employee clarifies with the manager what he does not understand. Stupid question «What do you mean?» makes almost any leader tense up.

Indeed, what did he mean if his words remained, it seems, completely misunderstood? This is a raw question, uncomfortable for a leader, an unprepared question.

Another thing is when an employee asks thoughtfully: “Do you mean more this or that?”

Additional insert «to a greater extent» allows the manager to assume that his previous statements made so much sense that it’s not even possible to fit everything into one definite answer. It’s nice.

A leader can even answer a prepared clarifying question with a nod of the head, without straining it at all, which, of course, pleases almost any leader. And the point here is not natural laziness: there is simply enough stress in work, as a rule, and so there is no need to artificially add them.

A prepared question, offering a person alternative answers, thereby prompts desirable, “correct” answers. If prompting the desired answer was the main task of such a question, then it is more accurate to call such a prepared question a prompting one. And the technique used is the technique of prompting a question.

A prepared question is a question that already contains answers that are convenient for the interlocutor. Prepared questions are evidence of concern for the interlocutor, a variant of syntonic communication. An unprepared question confuses the interlocutor, asks him additional (that is, completely unnecessary) work, or even presents the interlocutor in an unattractive light, and in this sense, an unprepared question is not much different in fact from negative manipulation. See →

If you have a status, you can demand from your interlocutor that, when asking you questions, he takes care and formulates them properly, making them understandable and convenient for you. As for business communication, while your employees communicate unskilledly and have not learned how to formulate prepared questions, they will often strain you. What to do? In the long term, either fire such an employee or train him, but for now, invite him not to discuss his “how” now, but to take a period (for example, a day), so that by this time he will come to you with his own draft solution (with solution options ). See details →