Chris Fenning explains how to ask better questions by cutting the fluff. Start with your actual question, skip the backstory, pause for an answer, and let people ask for details if they need them.
How to ask questions. Tip number 8. Get to the point. When you're asking a question, the quicker you can get to the point of the question, the easier it is for the person that you're asking to give you an answer. What you don't need to do is include a lot of background or context or information about the question. Leave that out. Go straight to the question that you want to ask. If you don't do this, you run the risk of people forgetting what the question is. If I ask a question but include all of the reasons why I'm asking it in the background, and here's some extra info that may help you with your answer, by the time I finished speaking, you've only got a memory of what the question might have been, not the exact words of the question. So your answer might not give me what I need. It's also much harder for you as the person who I'm asking to understand what it is I'm really looking for. Do I want an answer to the question or do I want you to hear all this extra information that I'm giving you? So when asking questions, make sure you get to the point. How can you do this? Well, start with the question that you want to ask and then Pause and wait for the answer. Strip out all of the background, all of the extra information you think may be helpful. Ask the question that you want because it may be enough for the other person to answer. And if it's not, they can ask if they need more information. Don't give them information that they might not need, and don't give them information that will crowd out or bury the question that you want to get to. So remember, if you are asking questions at work, get to the point.
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