A Better Question Than "Do You Have Any Questions?"
Episode description
Recently, I've heard an idea a few times that I'd like to share and discuss in this post. As I'm writing this, I can't remember who to cite. That's my mistake. I'll happily correct the post if I remember or somebody lets me know who to credit. Because I love this idea... but it's not my idea.
It's pretty common for a speaker to ask the audience, at the end of a talk:
"Do you have any questions?"
I'm quite certain I've done that. Sometimes, the answer is yes. But the framing of the question is closed-ended. And the question, whether at a talk or during a meeting, might be intimidating. People might wonder, "Is it OK to have questions? Should I be embarrassed if there was something I didn't quite understand?"
That's why it seems a better question is the open-ended version of that:
"What questions do you have?"