Tips on Making Presentations / Questioning Techniques
When you think of questions in a presentation, you may typically think of the ones asked of the presenter. However, asking questions of the audience can be a useful technique. They enable you to:
- Engage the audience.
- Get them thinking from a different perspective.
- Ask a question that those in the audience wanted to ask.
- Re-focus the audience.
There are three types of questions:
- Open Ended: These are questions that do not allow for a “yes” or “no” answer. It is best to use an open ended question when you wish to encourage dialogue, debate or explore new ideas. For example, “What barriers have you encountered with the child support system?”
- Closed Ended: These are questions which can be answered “yes” or “no.” A closed ended question can be used to confirm understanding or to take a poll of the audience. For example, “Are you aware that the office of child support can help locate a parent who has moved out of the State?”
- Rhetorical: This type of question (which can be either open or closed ended) is one that you pose to get people thinking, but one to which you really do not expect an answer. These are a powerful way to engage and inspire your audience without actual interaction with them. For example, “Can you imagine the benefits to families if we could ensure that all child support payments owed to them actually reached them?” “Why is the Hispanic community underserved by the child support system?”
Now let’s turn to answering questions. Part of the preparation for your presentation should be to anticipate questions that your audience might have. If you can cover that information before it becomes a question for someone, so much the better.
When you do get a question or open the floor for Q&A, keep these guidelines in mind:
- Always be respectful of the questioner.
- Where appropriate, redirect the question by asking the audience what they think.
- Rephrase the question for clarity: “So what I hear you saying is.…”
- Ask permission to delay answering the question: “That’s a great question. I’m going to cover that in the next section. Would you be comfortable waiting until then?”
- Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know, but I’ll get you the answer.”
