Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Answer questions in the same forum at which they are asked. If possible, answer questions immediately. Failure to follow these usually leads to suspicion, and that is the death of organizations.

Does anyone have any questions?

Yes, speakers feel obligated to say this. I am not sure why, but there is something that just pulls this question out of people.

Okay, so you ask for questions. Someone raises their hand and asks a “tough question.” That is a question that you may not want to answer now or don’t have an answer now or just don’t know what the answer is (what is the square root of 13)?

Here is point 1:

Answer questions in the same forum in which they are asked.

Speakers often miss this point. They respond with, “That’s a good question. Let’s talk about it later after the meeting.”

This answer is often heard as, “How dare you ask that question here and now. You are trying to embarrass me. I’ll fix you later.”

The answer is often also heard as, “I don’t want to tell all these people the answer to that.”

This leads to point 1.a.:

If you ask for questions, answer them.

This leads to point 1.b.:

If you don’t want questions, any possible questions, don’t ask for them.

Unanswered questions or questions passed to some other, less public, place lead to (among other things):

suspicion

There are few things for the life of an organization that are worse than suspicion. People stop trusting one another. When trust is gone, just close the door and turn out the lights because it is all over.

There is, however, at least one other way to delay a question to another place. Tell the asker, “I don’t have the answer to that. Will you help me work on the answer and distribute the answer to everyone here?”

Give this response only if you mean it, only if you have the time to work with the asker, and only if you can arrange a way to distribute the answer to everyone present.

Preserve the trust that exists among the people.