… and you get a silly answer”. You have to ask a sensible question to earn a sensible response.

My previous post argued that there is a set of criteria by which we can judge the quality of questions. It may not be immediately obvious to readers of that post that the same set of criteria can be applied to the judgment of answer quality.

Just as good questions need to reflect qualities of relevance, clarity, insightfulness, constructiveness, evidence, risk awareness, and ethicality, so too should good answers.

The header image above offers a light-hearted view of this need for alignment of question and answer quality.

Answering a sensible question with an evasive or grandiloquent response is hardly conducive to quality deliberation and decision-making. The extent to which you receive high-quality answers is largely determined by the quality and nature of the questions you ask.

Capacity building

The capacity to ask the right question is a key enabler of personal empowerment and agency. It facilitates learning and growth, supports effective decision-making and advocacy, and ultimately permits democracy to flourish.

The Right Question Institute (RQI) is a US nonprofit educational organisation offering resources that build people’s skills to ask better questions, participate in decisions that affect them, advocate for themselves, and partner with service providers. Their methods are delivered through educational institutions and organisations, health care organisations, social service organisations, community-based organisations, and public agencies across the USA and beyond.

One of the RQI’s key resources is the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), outlined briefly in the chart below.

Originally devised for use in schools, the QFT has subsequently been adapted for use in post-graduate research, parental engagement in their children’s learning, adult literacy programs, and self-advocacy enhancement initiatives, amongst many others.

Within our nonprofit settings, there may be several benefits from the adaptation of the QFT beyond improving the quality of questions asked by directors, managers, and team members. You may wish to consider the needs of your members and clients as you deliberate on other capacity-building purposes you could address by such local adaptation.

The capacity to answer the right questions is a related skill, and one equally worthy of our attention.

See also:
Quality Question Quest
A question of skillful questioning
Questioning Frameworks and Options