TOT 104: Handling Questions

Handling questions is an integral part of any training program. Trainer must be prepared for it. Questions cannot be avoided or brushed aside. They need to be answered or deferred. In every training program, the trainer has to make note of the questions asked by the trainees. This will give a cue on the probable questions the trainees may pose. Often the same questions or similar questions may be asked by different trainees in different training programs. How different trainers have answered the very same question in different ways or in the same way may also be noted. At times the trainer may hear a question for the first time. A separate note book earmarked for the questions asked by the trainees is required to be maintained by the trainer. At times, trainees may not feel satisfied with the answer given by the trainer. They may or may not express it. Nevertheless trainer will have to understand it from the body language of the trainee/s .In such circumstances, trainer can consult someone else, or work on the question, or read more material and equip as to how a clear, correct and satisfactory answer can be given to that question, if ever that question is asked by any one in future. 

1. Anticipating questions

Trainees may have to anticipate questions that may generally be asked by the trainees and be well prepared to answer the same. Or, may bring the key elements in the presentation in such a way that there is total clarity and the probable question in the mind of the trainees gets answered without even the question being specifically asked.

2. Deferring the questions:

Trainer can defer the question:

• If answer is not known to the trainer
• If the question asked would get answered in the coming sessions
• When the question needs an elaborate answer and would consume more time
• When the question asked is such that it would give room for further chain of questions. 

However, the trainer has to be very diplomatic while deferring the questions.

3. Not answering the questions

Trainer need not answer the questions

• When the question does not relate to the topic under consideration
• When it is asked to test the trainer’s capacity
• When it is asked to exhibit that trainee knows better and more than the trainer
• When it is asked to distract the other trainees
• When the question is asked to get control over the entire training session making the trainer stand helpless.
• When the question requires to be answered by some one else than the trainer to whom the question is put.
• When the question is in the form of unsolicited advice to the trainer. 

4. Cutting short the question

Trainer may have to cut short the questions in the following circumstances:

• When the person who is asking the question is not clear about his doubt
• When the person asking the question has not coined the question properly
• When the very person asking a question, starts talking too much in the guise of asking a question
• When the person asking a question, following his own question, tries to give his /her answers in an elaborate manner. 

A simple answer to the question/is asked in situations covered under (3) and (4) may be: “Sir/ Madam, let me complete the presentation and consider what needs to be done on your question a little later.” 

5. Accepting lack of knowledge 

 There is nothing wrong when a trainer acknowledges that he/she does not know the answer to a given question asked by the trainee/s. In such circumstances, trainers may tell the same openly and may seek time to get back to the trainees. Consult someone /read some material and get back to the trainees with the answer. Or the trainer may ask any of the co trainers or lead trainer to answer the question. Or, Trainer may even ask any of the participants to answer the said question if they knew the answer. 

Such acknowledgment reflects the humility on the part of the trainer. Trainer has to remember that “ it is not necessary to know answers to all questions related to a topic, and lack of knowledge does not always reflect the incompetence of the trainer.”

“My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers”

Sir Tom Stoppard
British Playwright

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