Guideline for Open Questions for
Clearness Committees or Listening Groups
- The best single mark of an honest, open question is that the questioner could not possibly anticipate the answer to it. “Did you ever feel like this before?”
- Ask questions aimed at helping the focus person rather than at satisfying your curiosity.
- Ask questions that are brief and to the point rather than larding them with background considerations and rationale—which make the question into a speech.
- Ask questions that go to the person as well as the problem—for example, questions about feelings as well as about facts.
- Trust your intuition in asking questions, even if your instinct seems off the wall: “What color is your present job, and what color is the one you have been offered?”