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December 2006/January 2007 |
Volume 47, Number 3 |
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Elizabeth Frick Presents "That's a Good Question!" at November Chapter MeetingFollowing a well-attended Consulting and Independent Contracting (CIC) Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting led by co-managers Linda Gallagher and Whitney Broach, president Deb Lockwood welcomed current members, new members, and guests to the November chapter meeting and new member drive. Lockwood congratulated membership committee manager Tammy Van Boening on the terrific set of gifts she assembled for the raffle including the grand prize: a license for the complete Webworks ePublisher Platform. After the announcements, program committee manager Kristy Astry introduced the speaker, Dr. Elizabeth (Bette) Frick.  November's speaker, Dr. Elizabeth (Bette) Frick Dr. Frick, the Text Doctor(R), is a writer and editor who teaches writing in Denver Metro and Twin Cities companies and organizations. Her interactive classes and practical workshops help attendees improve communication skills. A former president of the STC Twin Cities Chapter, she won the 2002 Excellence in Training award from the Association of Professional Communications Consultants (APCC). Frick's program, "That's a good question! How writers can learn to be better questioners," explored how writers can generate perceptive questions, listen and probe for more information, and develop a thorough and tactful questioning strategy to elicit the information they need. Frick stressed the importance of discovery skills by illustrating the kinds of questions successful inventors and entrepreneurs ask. For example, Blake Ross started the Mozilla Firefox project by asking, "What's bad about today's software?" All of us need discovery skills. Frick shared several quotes, including one by Albert Einstein: "The most important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."  STC RMC members engaged in the presentation Failure to ask the right questions can have disastrous consequences. The loss of the Mars Polar Lander was attributed to the project not asking, "What units of measure should we use?" One team used English units; another team used metric units. The presentation analyzed nine types of questions:
Frick encouraged the audience to think of open-ended questions by asking people to give a one-word hint for something about themselves that the audience did not know. For example, Frick gave "bars" as a one-word hint for her experience teaching English in a prison. The audience tried to guess the meaning of the hint with as few questions as possible. The best results were obtained by asking open-ended questions. Relating to the interviewee is always a good strategy. Let the person know you care. Part of good questioning is good listening. Avoid making assumptions, editorializing, and making statements that masquerade as questions. For example: "You have been accused of doing such-and-such very bad thing. Could you respond to that criticism?" Frick warned the audience to avoid grilling questions, leading questions, and double-barreled questions. She noted that in some cultures, people do not like being questioned and avoid eye contact. In these situations, try writing questions rather than asking them in person. Sitting next to an interviewee allows you to ask them questions without eye contact. Above all, she concluded, remember this quote by Mark Victor Hansen: "The size of your question determines the size of your answer."  Raffle winners  Deb Lockwood and Tammy Van Boening drawing tickets for the raffle items  |
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