what is macduff’s response to lady macbeth when she asks what has happened? why is this ironic?
In Brief
The Problem
Some professionals such as litigators, journalists and even doctors, are taught to ask questions as role of their training. But few executives think about questioning as a skill that can be honed. That's a missed opportunity.
The Opportunity
Questioning is a powerful tool for unlocking value in companies: It spurs learning and the exchange of ideas, it fuels innovation and better performance, information technology builds trust amongst team members. And it tin can mitigate business chance by uncovering unforeseen pitfalls and hazards.
The Approach
Several techniques tin heighten the power and efficacy of queries: Favor follow-up questions, know when to go on questions open up-concluded, get the sequence right, use the correct tone, and pay attention to group dynamics.
Much of an executive's workday is spent request others for information—requesting status updates from a squad leader, for example, or questioning a analogue in a tense negotiation. Notwithstanding unlike professionals such as litigators, journalists, and doctors, who are taught how to ask questions every bit an essential part of their training, few executives think of questioning as a skill that can be honed—or consider how their own answers to questions could brand conversations more productive.
That's a missed opportunity. Questioning is a uniquely powerful tool for unlocking value in organizations: It spurs learning and the substitution of ideas, it fuels innovation and performance improvement, information technology builds rapport and trust among team members. And information technology tin can mitigate business risk by uncovering unforeseen pitfalls and hazards.
For some people, questioning comes hands. Their natural inquisitiveness, emotional intelligence, and ability to read people put the platonic question on the tip of their natural language. Just most of us don't ask plenty questions, nor do we pose our inquiries in an optimal way.
The good news is that by asking questions, we naturally improve our emotional intelligence, which in turn makes usa better questioners—a virtuous cycle. In this article, nosotros draw on insights from behavioral science inquiry to explore how the way we frame questions and choose to answer our counterparts can influence the outcome of conversations. We offer guidance for choosing the best type, tone, sequence, and framing of questions and for deciding what and how much data to share to reap the well-nigh do good from our interactions, not just for ourselves but for our organizations.
Don't Enquire, Don't Get
"Be a good listener," Dale Carnegie brash in his 1936 classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. "Ask questions the other person will savor answering." More than 80 years after, near people still fail to mind Carnegie's sage advice. When one of the states (Alison) began studying conversations at Harvard Business School several years agone, she speedily arrived at a foundational insight: People don't ask enough questions. In fact, among the almost mutual complaints people make after having a conversation, such as an interview, a first date, or a work meeting, is "I wish [southward/he] had asked me more questions" and "I can't believe [s/he] didn't ask me any questions."
Why do and so many of us hold back? There are many reasons. People may be egoistic—eager to impress others with their own thoughts, stories, and ideas (and not even call back to ask questions). Perhaps they are apathetic—they don't intendance enough to ask, or they conceptualize being bored past the answers they'd hear. They may be overconfident in their own knowledge and think they already know the answers (which sometimes they do, just ordinarily not). Or perhaps they worry that they'll ask the incorrect question and be viewed as rude or incompetent. But the biggest inhibitor, in our stance, is that most people simply don't understand how beneficial good questioning can be. If they did, they would end far fewer sentences with a period—and more with a question mark.
Dating dorsum to the 1970s, research suggests that people have conversations to attain some combination of 2 major goals: information exchange (learning) and impression management (liking). Recent research shows that asking questions achieves both. Alison and Harvard colleagues Karen Huang, Michael Yeomans, Julia Minson, and Francesca Gino scrutinized thousands of natural conversations amid participants who were getting to know each other, either in online chats or on in-person speed dates. The researchers told some people to ask many questions (at least 9 in 15 minutes) and others to ask very few (no more than four in fifteen minutes). In the online chats, the people who were randomly assigned to enquire many questions were meliorate liked by their conversation partners and learned more about their partners' interests. For example, when quizzed nearly their partners' preferences for activities such as reading, cooking, and exercising, high question askers were more likely to be able to guess correctly. Among the speed daters, people were more willing to proceed a second date with partners who asked more questions. In fact, asking but one more question on each date meant that participants persuaded i additional person (over the course of 20 dates) to go out with them once again.
Asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding.
Questions are such powerful tools that they tin be beneficial—peradventure particularly so—in circumstances when question asking goes against social norms. For example, prevailing norms tell u.s. that task candidates are expected to answer questions during interviews. Simply inquiry by Dan Cablevision, at the London Business School, and Virginia Kay, at the Academy of North Carolina, suggests that most people excessively self-promote during task interviews. And when interviewees focus on selling themselves, they are likely to forget to ask questions—near the interviewer, the organization, the work—that would make the interviewer feel more than engaged and more apt to view the candidate favorably and could assist the candidate predict whether the job would provide satisfying work. For task candidates, asking questions such equally "What am I not asking yous that I should?" can signal competence, build rapport, and unlock key pieces of information about the position.
Nigh people don't grasp that request a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison's studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn't intuit the link betwixt questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others' conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.
The New Socratic Method
The get-go footstep in becoming a better questioner is simply to ask more than questions. Of course, the sheer number of questions is not the only factor that influences the quality of a conversation: The type, tone, sequence, and framing as well affair.
In our teaching at Harvard Concern Schoolhouse, we run an practise in which we instruct pairs of students to have a conversation. Some students are told to ask as few questions as possible, and some are instructed to inquire as many as possible. Amid the low-depression pairs (both students inquire a minimum of questions), participants generally study that the feel is a bit similar children engaging in parallel play: They exchange statements but struggle to initiate an interactive, enjoyable, or productive dialogue. The high-high pairs find that also many questions can besides create a stilted dynamic. However, the high-low pairs' experiences are mixed. Sometimes the question asker learns a lot about her partner, the answerer feels heard, and both come abroad feeling profoundly closer. Other times, ane of the participants may feel uncomfortable in his role or unsure nearly how much to share, and the chat can experience like an interrogation.
Our enquiry suggests several approaches that can enhance the power and efficacy of queries. The best approach for a given situation depends on the goals of the conversationalists—specifically, whether the word is cooperative (for example, the duo is trying to build a relationship or accomplish a task together) or competitive (the parties seek to uncover sensitive information from each other or serve their ain interests), or some combination of both.
Consider the following tactics.
Favor follow-upwards questions.
Not all questions are created equal. Alison'southward research, using human coding and machine learning, revealed iv types of questions: introductory questions ("How are you?"), mirror questions ("I'm fine. How are you lot?"), full-switch questions (ones that alter the topic entirely), and follow-up questions (ones that solicit more information). Although each type is arable in natural conversation, follow-up questions seem to have special power. They signal to your conversation partner that you are listening, care, and want to know more. People interacting with a partner who asks lots of follow-up questions tend to feel respected and heard.
An unexpected benefit of follow-up questions is that they don't require much idea or preparation—indeed, they seem to come up naturally to interlocutors. In Alison'due south studies, the people who were told to ask more questions used more follow-up questions than whatsoever other type without being instructed to practise so.
Know when to keep questions open-ended.
No one likes to experience interrogated—and some types of questions can force answerers into a aye-or-no corner. Open up-ended questions tin can counteract that consequence and thus can be particularly useful in uncovering information or learning something new. Indeed, they are wellsprings of innovation—which is often the effect of finding the hidden, unexpected reply that no one has thought of before.
A wealth of inquiry in survey design has shown the dangers of narrowing respondents' options. For case, "closed" questions can introduce bias and manipulation. In ane study, in which parents were asked what they deemed "the most important affair for children to fix them in life," well-nigh threescore% of them chose "to think for themselves" from a list of response options. However, when the same question was asked in an open-concluded format, just almost 5% of parents spontaneously came up with an answer forth those lines.
Of course, open-ended questions aren't always optimal. For example, if you are in a tense negotiation or are dealing with people who tend to go along their cards close to their chest, open up-concluded questions tin can leave too much wiggle room, inviting them to contrivance or lie by omission. In such situations, airtight questions work ameliorate, specially if they are framed correctly. For example, enquiry by Julia Minson, the University of Utah's Eric VanEpps, Georgetown'south Jeremy Yip, and Wharton's Maurice Schweitzer indicates that people are less likely to lie if questioners brand pessimistic assumptions ("This business will need some new equipment soon, correct?") rather than optimistic ones ("The equipment is in expert working gild, right?").
Read more than virtually
Sometimes the information you wish to ascertain is so sensitive that direct questions won't work, no matter how thoughtfully they are framed. In these situations, a survey tactic tin can aid discovery. In inquiry Leslie conducted with Alessandro Acquisti and George Loewenstein of Carnegie Mellon University, she found that people were more forthcoming when requests for sensitive information were couched within some other task—in the written report's case, rating the ethicality of hating behaviors such as cheating on one's tax render or letting a drunk friend drive abode. Participants were asked to charge per unit the ethicality using one calibration if they had engaged in a particular behavior and another calibration if they hadn't—thus revealing which antisocial acts they themselves had engaged in. Although this tactic may sometimes evidence useful at an organizational level—we can imagine that managers might administrate a survey rather than ask workers directly about sensitive data such as salary expectations—we counsel restraint in using it. If people feel that y'all are trying to trick them into revealing something, they may lose trust in you, decreasing the likelihood that they'll share information in the future and potentially eroding workplace relationships.
Go the sequence right.
The optimal lodge of your questions depends on the circumstances. During tense encounters, request tough questions first, even if it feels socially awkward to practise and then, can make your conversational partner more willing to open. Leslie and her coauthors constitute that people are more willing to reveal sensitive information when questions are asked in a decreasing order of intrusiveness. When a question asker begins with a highly sensitive question—such as "Take you e'er had a fantasy of doing something terrible to someone?"—subsequent questions, such equally "Have you ever called in sick to work when yous were perfectly salubrious?" feel, past comparison, less intrusive, and thus we tend to be more forthcoming. Of class, if the start question is as well sensitive, you lot run the risk of offending your counterpart. So it'south a frail residuum, to exist sure.
If the goal is to build relationships, the opposite approach—opening with less sensitive questions and escalating slowly—seems to be nearly effective. In a classic ready of studies (the results of which went viral following a write-up in the "Modern Love" column of the New York Times), psychologist Arthur Aron recruited strangers to come to the lab, paired them up, and gave them a listing of questions. They were told to work their manner through the list, starting with relatively shallow inquiries and progressing to more cocky-revelatory ones, such every bit "What is your biggest regret?" Pairs in the control group were asked only to collaborate with each other. The pairs who followed the prescribed structure liked each other more than the control pairs. This effect is so strong that information technology has been formalized in a chore chosen "the relationship closeness induction," a tool used past researchers to build a sense of connection among experiment participants.
Practiced interlocutors also sympathise that questions asked previously in a conversation tin influence futurity queries. For example, Norbert Schwarz, of the Academy of Southern California, and his coauthors found that when the question "How satisfied are you with your life?" is followed past the question "How satisfied are you lot with your marriage?" the answers were highly correlated: Respondents who reported beingness satisfied with their life too said they were satisfied with their marriage. When asked the questions in this order, people implicitly interpreted that life satisfaction "ought to be" closely tied to marriage. Nevertheless, when the same questions were asked in the opposite club, the answers were less closely correlated.
Use the right tone.
People are more than forthcoming when you ask questions in a casual style, rather than in a buttoned-upwards, official tone. In one of Leslie's studies, participants were posed a series of sensitive questions in an online survey. For one group of participants, the website'south user interface looked fun and frivolous; for another group, the site looked official. (The control group was presented with a neutral-looking site.) Participants were virtually twice as likely to reveal sensitive information on the casual-looking site than on the others.
Asking tough questions start can make people more than willing to open up.
People also tend to be more forthcoming when given an escape hatch or "out" in a conversation. For case, if they are told that they can change their answers at any point, they tend to open up more—even though they rarely stop up making changes. This might explain why teams and groups find brainstorming sessions and so productive. In a whiteboard setting, where anything tin be erased and judgment is suspended, people are more likely to respond questions honestly and say things they otherwise might not. Of class, there volition be times when an off-the-cuff approach is inappropriate. Simply in general, an overly formal tone is probable to inhibit people'south willingness to share information.
Pay attention to group dynamics.
Conversational dynamics tin modify profoundly depending on whether you're chatting one-on-one with someone or talking in a group. Not only is the willingness to answer questions affected simply by the presence of others, but members of a group tend to follow ane another's lead. In one ready of studies, Leslie and her coauthors asked participants a series of sensitive questions, including ones about finances ("Have you always bounced a check?") and sexual activity ("While an adult, have yous ever felt sexual desire for a modest?"). Participants were told either that most others in the study were willing to reveal stigmatizing answers or that they were unwilling to do so. Participants who were told that others had been forthcoming were 27% likelier to reveal sensitive answers than those who were told that others had been reticent. In a meeting or group setting, it takes only a few airtight-off people for questions to lose their probing ability. The opposite is true, as well. As soon every bit one person starts to open up upwards, the rest of the grouping is likely to follow suit.
Group dynamics can as well touch on how a question asker is perceived. Alison'due south research reveals that participants in a conversation enjoy being asked questions and tend to like the people asking questions more than those who reply them. Only when third-party observers lookout man the same conversation unfold, they prefer the person who answers questions. This makes sense: People who mostly ask questions tend to disclose very little about themselves or their thoughts. To those listening to a conversation, question askers may come up across equally defensive, evasive, or invisible, while those answering seem more fascinating, present, or memorable.
The Best Response
A conversation is a dance that requires partners to be in sync—it'due south a common push-and-pull that unfolds over fourth dimension. Just as the way we ask questions can facilitate trust and the sharing of information—so, likewise, can the fashion nosotros respond them.
Answering questions requires making a choice about where to fall on a continuum between privacy and transparency. Should we respond the question? If we respond, how forthcoming should we exist? What should we do when asked a question that, if answered truthfully, might reveal a less-than-glamorous fact or put the states in a disadvantaged strategic position? Each end of the spectrum—fully opaque and fully transparent—has benefits and pitfalls. Keeping information private can make united states feel gratis to experiment and acquire. In negotiations, withholding sensitive information (such as the fact that your alternatives are weak) tin can help yous secure meliorate outcomes. At the same time, transparency is an essential part of forging meaningful connections. Fifty-fifty in a negotiation context, transparency can lead to value-creating deals; past sharing information, participants can identify elements that are relatively unimportant to 1 party but important to the other—the foundation of a win-win outcome.
And keeping secrets has costs. Research by Julie Lane and Daniel Wegner, of the Academy of Virginia, suggests that concealing secrets during social interactions leads to the intrusive recurrence of hugger-mugger thoughts, while research past Columbia'southward Michael Slepian, Jinseok Chun, and Malia Bricklayer shows that keeping secrets—fifty-fifty outside of social interactions—depletes us cognitively, interferes with our ability to concentrate and call up things, and fifty-fifty harms long-term health and well-being.
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In an organizational context, people too often err on the side of privacy—and underappreciate the benefits of transparency. How ofttimes do we realize that we could have truly bonded with a colleague simply after he or she has moved on to a new company? Why are better deals oftentimes uncovered later the ink has dried, the tension has broken, and negotiators brainstorm to chat freely?
To maximize the benefits of answering questions—and minimize the risks—it'southward of import to decide before a chat begins what data you want to share and what you want to continue private.
Deciding what to share.
There is no rule of thumb for how much—or what blazon—of information yous should disembalm. Indeed, transparency is such a powerful bonding agent that sometimes it doesn't affair what is revealed—even information that reflects poorly on us can draw our conversational partners closer. In research Leslie conducted with HBS collaborators Kate Barasz and Michael Norton, she plant that about people assume that it would be less damaging to refuse to answer a question that would reveal negative information—for example, "Have you ever been reprimanded at work?"—than to answer affirmatively. But this intuition is wrong. When they asked people to take the perspective of a recruiter and cull between ii candidates (equivalent except for how they responded to this question), about ninety% preferred the candidate who "came clean" and answered the question. Before a chat takes place, recall advisedly almost whether refusing to answer tough questions would do more impairment than proficient.
Deciding what to continue individual.
Of course, at times you lot and your organization would be better served by keeping your cards close to your chest. In our negotiation classes, nosotros teach strategies for handling hard questions without lying. Dodging, or answering a question you wish y'all had been asked, can exist effective not only in helping you protect information you lot'd rather go along private just also in building a good rapport with your conversational partner, peculiarly if you lot speak eloquently. In a study led past Todd Rogers, of Harvard's Kennedy School, participants were shown clips of political candidates responding to questions by either answering them or dodging them. Eloquent dodgers were liked more than than ineloquent answerers, but only when their dodges went undetected. Some other constructive strategy is deflecting, or answering a probing question with some other question or a joke. Answerers tin can employ this approach to atomic number 82 the conversation in a dissimilar direction.
. . .
"Question everything," Albert Einstein famously said. Personal creativity and organizational innovation rely on a willingness to seek out novel data. Questions and thoughtful answers foster smoother and more-effective interactions, they strengthen rapport and trust, and pb groups toward discovery. All this we accept documented in our enquiry. Simply nosotros believe questions and answers have a power that goes far beyond matters of performance. The wellspring of all questions is wonder and curiosity and a capacity for delight. We pose and respond to queries in the conventionalities that the magic of a conversation volition produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Sustained personal engagement and motivation—in our lives as well as our work—crave that we are ever mindful of the transformative joy of asking and answering questions.
A version of this article appeared in the May–June 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Source: https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-surprising-power-of-questions
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