How to answer difficult questions
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Be Brilliant Answering Questions John Rockley – Lead trainer @johnrockley - [email protected] - www.jdoubler.co.uk
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When we present to an audience we often fear the difficult question. It puts us off our stride, takes us out of our comfort zones and we feel in danger. Don't worry jdoubler can help you by taking some very simple steps. Start by being aware that what they are doing is driven by them, not you. You are not responsible for other peoples anger, you are responsible for doing your job well. Don't take ownership of other peoples emotions. These slides have a lot of information that should simply be held in the back of your mind rather than directly acted upon; like an athlete building muscle memory, you need to build the skills to deal effectively with the difficult questions.
Transcript of How to answer difficult questions
Be Brilliant Answering
Questions
John Rockley – Lead trainer
@johnrockley - [email protected] - www.jdoubler.co.uk
Begin by talking
with Narrative,
Emotion,
&
Clarity.
Narrative / Story telling.
Why do we tell stories?
Narrative / Story telling.
Our brains have evolved to look for
stories.
“This is how I killed the tiger…”
Means that Tigers are no longer a threat.
WE ALL LIVE!!!
Emotion
Emotion
Moves memory from short term to long term storage.
When was the last time you cried?
When was the last time you laughed so hard some
wee came out?
When was the last time you felt ‘meh..’?
Strong emotions fix memories.
Emotion
Why should I
care?
Clarity
3 Have 3 things to say.
Clarity
What is the story?
What is the story?
What is the story?
Default Narrative
What do people think of you?
Default Narrative…
Politicians are corrupt.
Hospital closures are bad.
The rich should be taxed more.
All nuclear power is evil.
WHAT IS YOURS?
Style
Style
Eye contact.
Establish eye contact.
Who is avoiding eye contact?
Why are they avoiding eye contact?
Who is staring?
Why are they staring?
Style
Facial Expressions.
Remain calm
Be confident
Look for ‘facial feedback’
Give ‘facial feedback’
1. Slight Sadness.
2. Disgust.
3. Slight enjoyment.
4. Controlled anger.
5. Controlled fear.
6. Masked anger.
7. Fear or surprise.
8. Contempt, smug, disdain.
9. Worry or controlled fear.
Style
Stance
What the hell do I do with my hands?
Seriously, what?
Stand still.
Information
Information
Numbers?
Use the Wales Scale.
Do I minimise or maximise?
Information
What is the least I need?
Don’t take knowledge for granted.
Avoid jargon / acronyms
Information
Information shouldn’t hide
problems.
Information should be
understandable.
Talk like a normal person.
Questioners
Questioners
Why do people ask questions?
Questioners
They want to know the answer.
Questioners
They want to appear a certain way
to a certain constituency.
They have been told to ask.
They are angry.
They are scared.
They just want to be taken seriously.
Questioners
They want to appear a certain way
to a certain constituency.
WHO?
Questioners
They have been told to ask.
WHY?
Questioners
They are angry.
What has made them angry and is
it really what they’re asking?
Questioners
They are scared.
About what?
Questioners
They just want to be taken seriously.
Should you?
Questions
Questions
You will be asked 4 types of questions
• Questions you know the answer to.
• Questions you Don’t know the answers
to.
• Questions that ask you to speculate.
• Questions that you can answer but
really don’t want to.
Questions
Questions you know the answers to…
Full answers to closed questions.
Be aware of your audience.
What do they want from you?
Be aware of the time.
Questions
Questions you don’t know the answers to…
“I DON’T KNOW” + “BUT I CAN FIND OUT” = J
“before the end of the
session / send it to the
committee / make in publicly
available”
Questions
Bridging phrases… or how to sound like a politician.
• What's most important is…
• The real issue here is…
• That's not my area of expertise, but I think you’d be
interested in knowing that…
• Let me just add that…
• That reminds me…
• Let me answer you by saying that…
• That's an important point because…
• What that means is…
• Another thing to remember is…
• If you look at it closely, you'll find…
Questions
Questions that ask you to speculate…
YOU HAVE 100% CONTROL OVER
WHAT COMES OUT OF YOUR
MOUTH
Questions
Questions that you
can answer but really
don’t want to.
Questions
Has it all gone wrong?
Apologise fast and apologise hard.
“Go Ugly Early”
UNLESS…
Questions
UNLESS??
Unless what you said is actually the
permanent position of the
organisation.
Deal with it.
