How to answer difficult questions

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When we present to an audience we often fear the difficult question. It puts us off our stride, takes us out of our comfort zones and we feel in danger. Don't worry jdoubler can help you by taking some very simple steps. Start by being aware that what they are doing is driven by them, not you. You are not responsible for other peoples anger, you are responsible for doing your job well. Don't take ownership of other peoples emotions. These slides have a lot of information that should simply be held in the back of your mind rather than directly acted upon; like an athlete building muscle memory, you need to build the skills to deal effectively with the difficult questions.

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Be Brilliant Answering

Questions

John Rockley – Lead trainer

@johnrockley - info@jdoubler.co.uk - www.jdoubler.co.uk

Begin by talking

with Narrative,

Emotion,

&

Clarity.

Narrative / Story telling.

Why do we tell stories?

Narrative / Story telling.

Our brains have evolved to look for

stories.

“This is how I killed the tiger…”

Means that Tigers are no longer a threat.

WE ALL LIVE!!!

Emotion

Emotion

Moves memory from short term to long term storage.

When was the last time you cried?

When was the last time you laughed so hard some

wee came out?

When was the last time you felt ‘meh..’?

Strong emotions fix memories.

Emotion

Why should I

care?

Clarity

3 Have 3 things to say.

Clarity

What is the story?

What is the story?

What is the story?

Default Narrative

What do people think of you?

Default Narrative…

Politicians are corrupt.

Hospital closures are bad.

The rich should be taxed more.

All nuclear power is evil.

WHAT IS YOURS?

Style

Style

Eye contact.

Establish eye contact.

Who is avoiding eye contact?

Why are they avoiding eye contact?

Who is staring?

Why are they staring?

Style

Facial Expressions.

Remain calm

Be confident

Look for ‘facial feedback’

Give ‘facial feedback’

1. Slight Sadness.

2. Disgust.

3. Slight enjoyment.

4. Controlled anger.

5. Controlled fear.

6. Masked anger.

7. Fear or surprise.

8. Contempt, smug, disdain.

9. Worry or controlled fear.

Style

Stance

What the hell do I do with my hands?

Seriously, what?

Stand still.

Information

Information

Numbers?

Use the Wales Scale.

Do I minimise or maximise?

Information

What is the least I need?

Don’t take knowledge for granted.

Avoid jargon / acronyms

Information

Information shouldn’t hide

problems.

Information should be

understandable.

Talk like a normal person.

Questioners

Questioners

Why do people ask questions?

Questioners

They want to know the answer.

Questioners

They want to appear a certain way

to a certain constituency.

They have been told to ask.

They are angry.

They are scared.

They just want to be taken seriously.

Questioners

They want to appear a certain way

to a certain constituency.

WHO?

Questioners

They have been told to ask.

WHY?

Questioners

They are angry.

What has made them angry and is

it really what they’re asking?

Questioners

They are scared.

About what?

Questioners

They just want to be taken seriously.

Should you?

Questions

Questions

You will be asked 4 types of questions

• Questions you know the answer to.

• Questions you Don’t know the answers

to.

• Questions that ask you to speculate.

• Questions that you can answer but

really don’t want to.

Questions

Questions you know the answers to…

Full answers to closed questions.

Be aware of your audience.

What do they want from you?

Be aware of the time.

Questions

Questions you don’t know the answers to…

“I DON’T KNOW” + “BUT I CAN FIND OUT” = J

“before the end of the

session / send it to the

committee / make in publicly

available”

Questions

Bridging phrases… or how to sound like a politician.

• What's most important is…

• The real issue here is…

• That's not my area of expertise, but I think you’d be

interested in knowing that…

• Let me just add that…

• That reminds me…

• Let me answer you by saying that…

• That's an important point because…

• What that means is…

• Another thing to remember is…

• If you look at it closely, you'll find…

Questions

Questions that ask you to speculate…

YOU HAVE 100% CONTROL OVER

WHAT COMES OUT OF YOUR

MOUTH

Questions

Questions that you

can answer but really

don’t want to.

Questions

Has it all gone wrong?

Apologise fast and apologise hard.

“Go Ugly Early”

UNLESS…

Questions

UNLESS??

Unless what you said is actually the

permanent position of the

organisation.

Deal with it.

For more information go to www.jdoubler.co.uk or follow @johnrockley

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