Awkward Questions Invite Multiple Answers (Q+A)
GBE > Encyclopaedia > Code > Question+Answer > Q#23266
Questions and Answers:
About:
Awkward Questions Invite Multiple Answers
- I am about to start rambling….try to stick with me.
- This is not a criticism but an observation from life’s experience.
- (fortunately not learned by too many mistakes)
- There was one lady on an ground level element table of a brain storming session at a recent EU funded Research Project, who appeared a little eccentric in the way she ‘blurted-out’ some odd sounding questions.
- (I like eccentrics, I have worked with a few in the Specification and Green worlds, given time they are usually fascinating)
- I felt her questions may have been dismissed quite quickly.
- Once by “A question for another day perhaps”
- In the context of a time pressured event, this may be the only practical answer at the time.
- But I have a gut instinct there was probably something very important behind that question, that we may never understand the question nor get the answer too.
- I wish I have managed to catch the lady in question, but so many lovely canapé and other questions needed answers during networking.
Past Experience
- I know from past experience that those seemingly unrelated questions, if given time and patience to represent themselves can lead to relevant issues that need interrogation.
- On the construction site of a national library we had a QS who would ask ‘dumb to us’ questions, he would ask the same question 3 or 4 times, each time phrased in a different way, until all of a sudden the question made sense to us all and revealed a gap in our knowledge that needed interrogating.
- We also had a bright young package manager who would ask a ‘dumb to us’ question taking a issue that we understood, out of context and applying it in a strange new context only to discover the issue did apply, in this strange new way.
- We can assume too much and never get to the truth.
- Assume = Making an ASS of U and ME.
Advice given freely over the neighbours fence
- In the context of professionals giving free advice over the garden fence and later getting sued for that free advice.
- I have learned the lesson to take the time to answer the first question, as best I can, but then ask many questions around the first question and answer them all.
- If I do not do that the simple answer to the simple question gives the questioner leeway to misinterpret or misapply the answer and do the wrong thing.
- Answering the question and enriching it with many questions and answers gives the questioner a bigger piece of my context and shares more know-how.
- In the hope they can apply their new found understanding and make a better informed decision.
I gave the following as an example:
- https://greenbuildingencyclopaedia.uk/encyclopaedia/code/qa/comparing-flat-roof-insulation-thicknesses/
- Comparing Flat Roof Insulation Thicknesses (Q+A) G#8976
- and the subsequent quote by the questioner in the right column
- and a few others if you can’t sleep:
- https://greenbuildingencyclopaedia.uk/encyclopaedia/gbe-question-answer-navigation/
- GBE Question + Answer (Navigation) Q#14864
Inform and Invite ©Programmes 2008
- During the post-2008 recession I picked up this prompt from Programmes in Corby
- So I encourage others with questions to ‘inform and invite’
- Inform: enrich us with the context (what do you know that we don’t know)
- Invite: ask a question that we can answer (in the context of what you just informed us about)
- That usually works,
- The lady in question may find this a useful approach.
- I hope she comes to the next event I will try to tease out her questions.
- I hope she was not put off.
© GBE NGS ASWS BrianMurphy aka BrianSpecMan
4th July 2019 – 5th July 2019
Awkward Questions Invite Multiple Answers Q+A
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4th July 2019 – 5th July 2019
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