Questions That Work, a Resource for Facilitators ( St Press Facilitation Series) (Facilitation)

As a professional meeting facilitator, I am a huge advocate of asking powerful questions. One of the best books on the subject is this one, Questions that Work. This book has two parts: First, how to ask great questions including the types of questions, how to create questions, helpful tips, tools and techniques throughout the questioning process, as well as an excellent section on the ethics of questioning. The second half of the book is devoted to five specific situations; 1) Opening a session, 2) Enabling action, 3) Thinking critically, 4) Addressing issues and 5) Closing a session. There are over 700 sample questions included to spark your thinking and help prepare for a one-on-one conversation or with your team. I use this book in preparation for team discussions, helping me to think through the scenarios and how I can use powerful questions to invite participation, engage discussion, clarify issues, probe for examples, check inferences, build a consensus, close discussion...and the list goes on! I always prepare a few questions to stimulate the discussion, and I also think through "what if" scenarios: What if no one responds? What if the responses are diametrically different? Or eerily the same" Never leave home without a few Questions That Work in your back pocket!