Question techniques

ACTIVITY TYPE

• Informing 
• Consulting 
• Deciding together 
• Supporting the action 
• Involving
• Dialogue
• Reflection and feedback

DESCRIPTION

Question techniques to guide and structure the discussion process. There are different types of questions: 

• Open questions. The most effective open questions are usually the W-questions: Who? When? How? Which ones? What? Where? By what? Open questions ensure the receipt of a lot of information.
• Hypothetical questions. When a process comes to a standstill, hypothetical questions can activate the participants’ imagination and creativity, e.g. “Imagine … how would that be for you? What would have changed?”.
• The miracle questions. A special type of hypothetical question and is suitable for helping the group to form visions and goals and to reveal the images of goals and desires that exist in their minds. “Suppose a miracle happened overnight and your vision came true (or your problem solved): How would you recognize this? What has changed?”.
• Circular questions. Refer to interactions between direct and indirect participants. Through this, the influence of the interactions is brought into consciousness and enables new perspectives. Asking circular questions means “asking around the corner”, e.g. by introducing an outside perspective: “What would XY do in such a situation, how would he/she describe the situation?” or “How would colleagues, your supervisor, notice that the problem is on the way of being solved?
• Contextual questions. They illuminate the background of a contribution, the needs of those involved or the experiences on which assessments are based. The idea here is that opinions are often based on something deeper – the experiences that have been made, one’s own values, wishes or needs or certain information that is not yet accessible to everyone. Without knowing these, some contributions are difficult to classify.
• Meta questions. Used for process control and to make people aware of current events – e.g. to deal with disturbances in a more targeted way and make them discussable, e.g. “What is happening here in the interaction/ in this situation? “
• Paradoxical questions. Can help to wake up and take a different view of the situation. Examples are:
  • What happens when things get worse?
  • What could you do to make the problem bigger, worse?
  • What does it make possible?
  • What does it make impossible?
• Headstand questions increase creativity in finding solutions. In the first step, the actual (solution-oriented) question is turned into the opposite. 
• Scaling questions are used to get a concrete assessment of the weight of the problem or how helpful are the solutions, suggestions, etc,
• Solution-oriented questions draw attention to the achievement of goals and should always be formulated positively, i.e. they should not contain any avoidance goals, such as “I don’t want to the rivers to be polluted”. (Better: “I want all local water bodies to be clean”).

WATER/ AGRICULTURE EXAMPLE

The questioning technique is generally used at every meeting, whether it is initiating the process, deepening the problematic areas, working or designing. It is also often used to summarize activities.

The key is to choose the right question scenario for each participant, for example:

• The miracle question is worth using during meetings with farmers and other landowners to build goals and courses of action together
• The circular question is worth using during meetings with spatial planning experts, local activists or officials of various levels to stimulate cooperation and cooperation.

An example of such a question would be: “What advantages would you gain from establishment of a position of the catchment officer in your community? “ 

HOW TO USE IT ONLINE  

Use the Jamboard, Whiteboard or similar e-tool

RESOURCES NEEDED

• Time to do: depends on the context 
• Staff: at least one facilitator, depends on number of questions. Facilitator should be acquainted with topic and be able to group answers. 
• Equipment: pens, flipcharts, whiteboard, post it stickers. 

SUITABLE FOR  

• large and small groups 
• large groups divided up with 4 to 6 people per table

HOW TO DO IT  

• Formulate the questions.
• Decide the way, how the answers will be collected. 
• Group answers and present it to audience.

ADVANTAGES

• Inclusive as allows anyone to participate. 
• Garners a wide selection of views in a short time.
• Allows participants to hear from others.

CHALLENGIES

• The questions have to be tailored to the target audience.
• May be a need to consider how to constructively involve critical stakeholders