4 Best Practices for Asking the Right Questions

4 Best Practices for Asking the Right Questions

As you already know, asking the right question(s) are important to get the information you need to know to make decisions. By understanding something or someone fully, we can be empowered by making decisions that are based on real data, rather than misinformation.

After you have asked the right questions and find that your target gives answers that are not relevant or related to the topic, then what? This can be problematic, especially within organizations that need useful information for pre-employment assessments, performance management forms, or for conducting organizational assessments. Following, you will find some useful tips for creating questions that will yield rich and useful information for an organization or anyone asking questions.

Four best practices for asking the right questions:

1) The Simpler, the Better. Easy-to-understand simplicity is ideal when it comes to people. Some people “over analyze” questions, whereas others just don’t understand complex or heavy questions that make them think too much. These types of questions are more likely to confuse your target. Avoid using complex language, unless necessary.

2) Be Concise. Try to avoid being too wordy. This reduces the likelihood of misinterpretations of your question(s).

3) Stick to Relevant. Whatever the reason you are asking questions, focus on their relationship to the topic. This is especially true within organizational settings, not only because you want relevant information; but because employees are more likely to file a complaint or lawsuit if they feel the questions are not relevant or fair.

4) Follow Up. Whether it’s an email, phone call, or another means of communication, it is essential to respond to the individual. Not only is this common courtesy, it can help you to avoid unforeseen misunderstandings.

If you follow these four criteria, you will be well on your way to crafting some incredibly useful questions. Ones that will reveal the information that are most relevant to your organization. It will allow you to make useful and valid pre-employment assessments, performance management forms with accurate performance updates, as well as revealing the true company culture. Good luck!