In this instructional segment, the presenter explains why embedding your own tentative answer within a question creates confusion and slows down problem‑solving. By mixing a question with a self‑proposed answer, you effectively ask two questions at once, which forces the listener to parse and validate your assumption before addressing the real need. The speaker illustrates the issue with a form‑filling example, then offers two clearer alternatives: (1) ask the question directly without any pre‑emptive answer, and (2) ask for confirmation of your proposed answer as a separate, explicit request. The key takeaway is to keep the question and any hypothesized answer separate to obtain faster, clearer responses in the workplace.
Chapters
How to ask questions, tip number 10: don't include your answer when asking a question. Sometimes when we ask a question, we want to show that we've already thought about our question and have some idea of the answer, but that means we answer our own question as part of the question, and it can be confusing for the person who's listening to us. If you do this, if you include your answer in a question, you end up taking longer to get to the answer that you need. It also means you're probably not asking the real question that you want help with. Now, the best way to show this is to give you an example. If I was asking you a question, so when I— how do I fill out this form? Do I fill out Part A, then B, and then do I skip C because it's not necessary for me? What I've actually done there is ask 2 different questions. How do I fill out this form? And then I've given you my answer. I think I do I think I do B, and then I think I do C, and then I ask you to confirm it. So I've got 2 questions, my answer is sandwiched in the middle. I've got 2 better ways of doing that. I could either ask you straight out, hi, how do I fill in this form? And then you can give me the answer. It's a clear question and you can give me a clear answer. We get to what I need faster and I'm not confusing things. Another way is Is to say, I think I know what I'm doing, but can you confirm that I want to do— or can you confirm that I need to fill out Part A, then Part B, and that I can skip Part C? So the question becomes, can you confirm what I believe the answer to be? That's okay if you have an answer, but don't combine your answer in with the question asking how to do something and then give what you think the answer is, followed up with another clarification question. That's Unclear, takes a long time to get to, and isn't easy for the other person to answer. So if you want to ask good questions at work, don't include your own answer in the question.
