Strong Questions for Dialogue with your Audience

To open a dialogue with your audience, you should ask two powerful questions.

Your Task:

1. Using the principles below, formulate two strong questions that you could ask at the end of an upcoming presentation.

2. Formulate two questions that your audience could ask that would really challenge you.

EXAMPLES

WEAK: What do you think?
STRONG: From your position and your context, can you comment on the blind spots?

WEAK: Any concerns?
STRONG: Now ask your inner devil’s advocate: What could go wrong?

WEAK: Any questions?
STRONG: What are the most important questions we need to answer to progress?

More Examples

Barriers:

What else do you want to know before making a decision?

On a scale from 1 to 10, how confident do you feel that we can address these challenges?

What stops you from taking the recommended action?

Any reasons not to proceed?

What are some unforeseen difficulties that I may not have, considered?

What barriers do we need to address in order for you to feel confident in this plan?

Next Steps:

What are the next steps from here?

With this recommendation what is ideally your immediate next step?

Yes-feeling:

So listening to this proposal, how would you guide the affiliates/stakeholders/team members/?

What makes you especially happy about this project?

On a scale from 1 to 5 how well informed do you feel right now? How can I turn this into a 5?

What additional insights can we generate to grow the confidence in this project?

What could make this feel even safer for you?

Perspectives:

Please bring forward one perspective that we have not considered?

Which angles did we miss to cover in today’s presentation?

Have all perspectives been considered?

Any feedback to address [X]‘s concerns?

Do you think we have the right stakeholders identified or are there others we should consider?