Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Thorough Preparation
Ideational content
Interpersonal/emotional content
Listen beyond content to INTENT, e.g.:
Genuine questions really meant to obtain
information & understanding?
Test questions to check your competency?
Trick questions to set or trip you up?
„Vent‟ questions to let off steam?
„Challenge‟ questions to push opposing
viewpoint or agenda?
Make your listening attentive & active
by:
Preparing to listen: do a quick activation of
possible „schemata‟
Focusing your listening: key themes, key words
that are repeated, main question vs sub-question
Bullet pointing as you listen
Back-channeling while you listen: deliberate
acknowledgement of points to keep YOUR mind
focused
Mental reframing as you listen: to focus on
speaker‟s meaning, not words
Good Answering Strategies
are the Final Key
BEFORE you answer:
Decide the PURPOSE of your answer
Force yourself to choose a STRUCTURE for
the answer
PRIORITIZE: decide what is the most
important point to begin your answer
with, or to emphasize through repetition.
WHEN you answer:
Start by reframing the question to CHECK THAT
YOU HAVE UNDERSTOOD correctly: repeat,
paraphrase, sum up, confirm, clarify etc
ANNOUNCE your structure to your audience (“I
have three points to make in response to this:
first, …”)
Force yourself to stick to the structure
Speak SLOWLY, and use REPETITION
Answering ‘template’
„REFRAME‟ question
[Provide „In a nutshell‟ answer first]
Introduce answer structure
Produce answer with clear structure
„signals‟
Sum-up answer
Important reminders
Focus on KEY ISSUES, not trivial details
Keep the BIG PICTURE in mind, and
remind audience of this
Acknowledge that you don‟t know if you
don‟t know, but promise to find the
answer
What are poster presentations like?
What are poster sessions like?
References
Atkinson, C. Beyond Bullet Points. Microsoft Press. 2005.
Lin, B. Effective Technical Presentations III: Handling Q
& A (Power Point slides)
Mandel, S. Effective Presentation Skills. Crisp Learning,
1993.
Reynolds, G. Presentation Zen. New Riders Pub. 2008