Communicating change? Here are the powerful questions to ask
Great communicators use powerful questions to gather information, get to the heart of business challenges, and align leaders. In this guest post, Leigh Findlay, change comms expert and friend of Broom & Moon, shares her tips on what questions to ask at the outset of a project to set it up for success.
More than once, I’ve been pulled into projects when they’ve been running for weeks, months, or even years! Regardless, I like to start my work by asking fundamental, powerful questions to:
build common understanding among the project team
firmly connect projects/changes to purpose, strategy, and values
spot any risks and opportunities
What are powerful questions?
Powerful questions can’t be answered with a “yes” or “no”. They are open, inquisitive ‘W’ questions — why, what, who, when, where + the bonus H of how. They help us understand the complete story before we start a project and go like this:
Why are we doing this project?
This is a great question for extracting business outcomes. You may need to ask it a few times to get what you’re after.
What is happening?
Use this to understand what’s changing — and, importantly, what’s not changing.
Who is involved in this project?
Gather information about interested parties, approvals, and who your audience will be.
When is this happening?
The answer here will inform your communications approach. What opportunities or risks do the timings raise? What resources are available at this time?
Where is the project happening?
This is about understanding the locations for project work — and the audiences where the project is being delivered.
How will this project support our purpose/demonstrate our values/promote the strategy etc?
Your “how” questions might have been covered by answers to the Ws, but think about what hasn’t come out that would be helpful to know.
Practical tips for asking powerful questions
Asking powerful questions takes some practice and tenacity. Here are some tips to help you move from the fundamental facts of a new project to the more detailed information you need to craft your communications strategy.
Send your questions in advance
Use a templated brief to gather information about the project before your first meeting.
Answers to the 5W1H questions above are a perfect start for you to prepare for your follow-up discussion, and bring out potentially emotive topics best handled in conversation.
An additional question I love putting at the end of the brief is “What do you want people to think, feel, and do as a result of this project?”.
Asking this question can swiftly shift focus from the needs of the project team to the needs of your audience.
Be curious
Once your stakeholder has returned their brief, lead a follow-up conversation.
Stay curious as you use more W questions to probe and facilitate discussion. This is a great time to add in questions your audience will have too.
Remember, you’re asking questions to gather facts, shape the project with the team, and start planning your communications. Try not to overwhelm your colleagues or nitpick every aspect of their project!
Create options
Communicators are creative. Use “What if” questions to brainstorm alternative approaches for the project.
For example, “What if we do x to better demonstrate the company values?”
Or the more delicate: “What happens if we don’t do this?”
If you feel ready, this is a good way to test ideas too, such as who will lead the comms.
Listen for what’s not being said
There will be information gaps. If you’re plugged into the business, you’re more likely to spot them.
I love this question to help close gaps and wrap up a discussion: “What have we missed today that I should be aware of?”
Hold the silence as you really want your colleagues to think deep!
Want help turning your comms team into a strategic function that will help your business succeed? Get in touch.
