Page 23 - Communication in Organizations Basic Skills and Conversation Models

Communication in organizations 12

determines your immediate reactions to the conversation and the choice of subthemes
being discussed. In the second case the concept is broader. The different selective
listening skills will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

Asking questions

During many conversations it is often necessary to clarify what speakers are saying
exactly and what they really want. We have to deal here with ‘problem clarification’. In
this phase asking questions will help the speaker to put his thoughts in clear, actual and
understandable words. A clear distinction needs to be made between open-ended and
closed questions.

Open-ended questions
These questions leave speakers much freedom in formulating answers to them. They can
respond in their own words in accordance with their wishes or opinions. An easy way to
start these questions is by using words such as ‘How?’ ‘What?’ or ‘Can you tell me
something about?’ These questions give the speaker much space to answer freely.
Compare the following sentences:
• ‘How may I help you?’
• ‘What would you like to talk about?’
to:
• ‘How is that project doing?’
• ‘Can you tell me how you approached that client?’
With the first two questions both the content and form of the reaction are free. The last
two questions give less freedom because they are about a selected subject (the project, the
approach of the client). But even with this restriction the speaker can answer in any way
he wants.
Furthermore we can make a distinction between questions related to the subject that
the speaker is talking about and questions not related to the subject. These questions
should only be asked when the previous subject has been thoroughly explored.

‘Why’ questions
The ‘why’ question is often a suitable open-ended question: in particular because people
always have reasons for acting in a certain manner.
Moreover, they have created their own ideas about why they did something and why
problems have arisen. However, these types of questions can be regarded as threatening
when placed at the beginning of a conversation. When speakers feel they have to justify
their actions to the listener right at the beginning, they will feel obliged to give
explanations about things they are not ready to answer yet. The chance exists that they
will get defensive and confused.
Special attention needs to be paid to the tone of the ‘why’ question. It can sound like a
reprimand—‘Why are you so far behind on the schedule?’—or like an invitation—‘Do