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 the employee made sure that it was easy for another employee (or manager) to answer his question. In this article, we are talking about this case, about a communicatively prepared question.
A prepared question is a question that already contains answers that are convenient for the interlocutor. A prepared question is convenient for the interlocutor — unlike an unprepared question, which confuses the interlocutor, asks him additional (that is, completely unnecessary) work, or even presents the interlocutor in an unattractive light.
For example, critical indignation: “Why did you make such a decision if you saw that …?” — there is a typical example of not only an uncomfortable, but also a rather conflicting question: he makes the leader look like a fool (indeed, he saw what it would lead to, but made such a decision. Fool, right?). In this sense, an unprepared question is not much different in fact from negative manipulation. The only difference between them is that the authors of stupid questions do not pursue harmful goals, everything is simpler: they simply do not think about the convenience of the interlocutors.
A prepared question in a similar situation would be structured differently and could sound like this: “I would like to understand better. It was possible to do so and so, for the first — such arguments, for the second — such. What other reasons were there for you to decide to do so?
In this case, the leader is not a fool and the question to him is not conflicting. And if the leader has the time and desire to explain the situation to you, he will be happy to answer such questions, because here you can see a person who thinks and is really interested.
There is a big difference in 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?” That’s better. This is already a prepared question, and the leader can answer such a question even 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.
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 are at least some solutions (a bad solution and a terrible solution are already options) so 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.
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.
I don’t ask questions that no one can answer.
At first, I think for myself and voice the course of my thoughts to the interlocutor: what I know on this issue and what I would like to clarify.
Expanding the question, I try to give options for answers that suit me.
Having received an answer, I thank the interlocutor even if the answer did not satisfy me.