The Question and Answer component of talks are a fixture that we don’t normally analyse for structure possibilities. Having an audience interested enough in your topic to ask questions is a heartening occurrence. When we are planning the talk though, we may just neglect to factor this Q&A element into our planning. We may have considered what some potential questions might be, so that we are prepared for them, but maybe that is the extent of the planning. We need to go a bit broader though in our thinking about the full extent of the talk we are going to give. Should we accept questions as they arise or do we tell the audience we will take their questions at the end? What are the main considerations for each structure?
Q&A in Japan can be a bit tricky though, because people are shy to ask questions. Culturally the thinking is different to the West. In most western countries we ask questions because we want to know more. We don’t think that we are being disrespectful by implying that the speaker wasn’t clear enough, so that is why we need to ask our question. We also never imagine we must be dumb and have to ask a question because we weren’t smart enough to get the speaker’s meaning the first time around. We also rarely worry about being judged on the quality of our question. We don’t fret that if we ask a stupid question, we have now publicly announced to everyone we are an idiot.
Some speakers encourage questions on the way through their talks. They are comfortable to be taken down deeper on an aspect of their topic. They don’t mind being moved along to an off-topic point by the questioner. The advantage of this method is that the audience don’t have to wait until the end of the talk to ask their question. They can get clarification immediately on what is being explained. There might be some further information which they want to know about so they can go a bit broader on the topic.
This also presents an image of the speaker as very confident in their topic and flexible to deal with whatever comes up. They also must be good time managers and facilitators when speaking, to get through their information, take the questions on the way through and still finish on time. In today’s Age Of Distraction, being open to questions at any time serves those in the audience with short concentration spans or little patience.
Not everyone in the audience can keep a thought aflame right through to the end, so having forgotten what it was they were going to ask, they just sit there in silence when it gets to Q&A. Their lost question may have provoked an interesting discussion by the speaker on an important point. Having one person brave enough to ask a question certainly encourages everyone else to ask their question. The social pressure of being first has been lifted and group permission now allows for asking the speaker about some points in their talk.
On the other hand, the advantage of waiting until the end is that you remain in control of the order of the talk. You may have done an excellent job in the preparation of your talk and have dealt with all of the potential questions by the end of the talk. The Q&A then allows for additional things that have come up in the minds of the audience.
It also makes it easier to work through the slide deck in order. The slide deck is alike an autopilot for guiding us through the talk, as we don’t have to remember the order, we just follow the slides. Of course, if we allow questions throughout, we can always ask our questioner to wait, because we will be covering that point a little later in the talk. Nevertheless, the questions at the end formula gives the speaker more control over the flow of their talk with no distractions or departures from the theme.
Time control becomes much easier. We can rehearse our talk and get it down to the exact time, before we open up for questions during the time allotted for Q&A. If we have to face hostile questions, this is when they will emerge. Prior to that, we have at least gotten through what we wanted to say. We had full control of the proceedings.
If we get into a torrid time with a questioner, early in the piece, it may throw our equilibrium off balance or cause some consternation or embarrassment to the audience, detracting from what we want to say. A public bun fight between the speaker and an audience member can be very harmful. The atmosphere can turn unpleasant very quickly, which pollutes everyone’s recollection of you as the speaker. Also, if we don’t know how to handle hostile questions well, our credibility can quickly crumble on the spot. A crumbling credibility in a public forum is not a good look for any speaker’s personal and professional brands.
So my recommendation is for the seasoned pro speakers to take questions whenever you feel like it. For those who don’t present so frequently, err on the side of caution and take the questions at the end.
