As kids, we’re often told “There’s no such thing as a bad question.”
As adults, however, we soon learn that not all questions are created equal; a question can be limiting or empowering and can feel like an attack or an invitation, depending on the way we choose to phrase it. If you’ve ever spent time around someone who is a great question-asker, you’ll know that there’s an art to asking great questions.
Thankfully for those of us for whom it doesn’t come totally naturally, it’s a skill that can be learned.
There are essentially two types of questions: closed questions and open questions.
Table of Contents
- What Is an Open-Ended Question?
- Why Are Open-Ended Questions Helpful at Work?
- How to Solve Problems Using Open-Ended Questions
- Open-Ended Question Examples (for Employees)
Closed questions are questions that elicit a one-word answer (for example, “Are you hungry?” or “Are you proud of your work?” or “Do you like purple?”). While these kinds of questions are often an important starting point when gathering information and data, they limit us to a strict binary reality where the only options are “yes” or “no,” “true” or “false.”
As Robert M. Pirsig writes in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, “There’s a third possible logical term equal to yes and no which is capable of expanding our understanding in an unrecognized direction.” Pirsig points out that the Japanese concept Mu provides a helpful way of talking about limiting questions versus expansive ones; Mu can mean “unask the question,” or “ask a better question.” According to Pirsig, “Mu becomes appropriate when the context of the question becomes too small for the truth of the answer.”
Open-ended questions are a really helpful tool for effective communication, opening us up to a fuller and more nuanced reality and facilitating better conversations. Open-ended questions can help us think more creatively, improve our relationships with colleagues, work smarter, and achieve better results.
What Is an Open-Ended Question?
An open-ended question is a question that can’t be answered with one word but requires elaboration. Open-ended questions usually start with words like “how,” “what,” and “why,” and invite reflection and a more descriptive response than a closed question.
Open-ended questions often invite the person being questioned to share how they feel about something, as well as share their motivations and reasons for thinking and acting the way that they do.
Why Are Open-Ended Questions Helpful at Work?
Open-ended questions put the control in the hands of the person being asked the question. For many, being questioned can be an intimidating experience—as an employer, you don’t want to make your employee or colleague feel like you’re interrogating them, which a stream of rapid-fire closed questions can sometimes do. (Imagine a lawyer cross-examining a witness—they usually use closed questions to try and make their case as quickly and simply as possible).
If the person you’re talking to feels judged or put on the spot with too many closed questions they may freeze and shut down, which isn’t helpful for anyone involved. As Barbara Jordan writes, closed questions can “cause the person to answer in short phrases and fall into a passive role waiting for you to ask for information.”
Open-ended questions, on the other hand, can feel empowering and collaborative; when you hold space for someone to bring their complex thoughts and experiences to the table, they’ll feel safer and will be more likely to open up and share their experiences honestly with you.
Open-ended questions also have the benefit of inviting more in-depth feedback from customers and clients, which can provide you and your team with invaluable insights and propel you towards more creative solutions and innovations.
And, there may be another benefit to building a habit of asking open-ended questions more frequently: racially-loaded questions (for example, “Is your hair real?” and “Where are you really from?”) tend to be closed questions, so by practicing the art of open-ended questions you’re likely avoiding some common microaggressions, too.
How to Solve Problems Using Open-Ended Questions
One of the biggest benefits of open-ended questions, when done right, is that they can switch us from defensive mode to problem-solving mode.
This can help in many workplace situations, from dealing with frustrations with your boss or toxic coworkers to confusion with clients. Here are a few examples of how open-ended questions can help with these three situations:
Use Open-Ended Questions to Deal with a Micromanager
Let’s imagine that your boss micromanages you or is constantly disrupting your workflow by assigning tasks without checking if you have the capacity to take on more work. It can help to explain that you’re at capacity with your workload, or need some time to focus on one thing, and then follow up with some open-ended questions, such as “What would you like me to prioritize this week?” or “What would work best for you, in terms of me communicating my progress on this project to you?”
These questions serve as an invitation to your boss to share what’s on their mind, and they show that you’re receptive to their input, while also communicating your boundaries. A few, well-thought-through open-ended questions can help you to manage up effectively.
Use Open-Ended Questions to Deal with Toxic Coworkers
When dealing with toxic coworkers, open-ended questions can be a great way to get to the bottom of a problem without resorting to complaining about your colleagues behind their backs.
When talking directly to someone whose behavior is problematic, questions like “How are you feeling about [thing or person they seem to have negative feelings towards]?” or “What could I do to support you more in this area?” can encourage them to relax and help you get to the root of their frustration or negativity and involve them in the process of changing the situation for the better (if it’s toxic for you, it’s likely toxic for them, too).
If you’re talking to their manager or another teammate about the toxic coworker in question, you might try asking questions like “What improvements would you like to see us make to our team culture?”
Use Open-Ended Questions to Communicate with Customers or Clients
When designing and refining a product or service, detailed feedback from your clients and customers is vital. Open-ended questions like “What are your biggest struggles right now?” and “If you could wake up tomorrow and have one thing be different about your [issue in question], what would it be?” help you to uncover your ideal client or customer’s most important needs, and give you invaluable information about how to serve them.
Open-Ended Question Examples (for Employees)
Nobody loves a homegrown workplace problem, but it's essential to find its root and clean out the poison before it spreads. Open-ended questions are great to ask at the outset of a new project or partnership as they give context to the overarching goals as well as the steps that need to be laid out to reach them.
- Is there anything, in particular, you’d like to discuss in this meeting?
- What’s on your mind at the moment?
- Has anything changed since our last conversation?
- What’s different this time?
- How are you feeling about your workload?
- What would you like to celebrate today?
- What do you need more support with this week?
- What’s your biggest priority at the moment and why?
- What are your goals for this project?
- How will you measure the success of this project?
- What next steps would you like us to take?
- Do you have any concerns about this?
- Can you help me understand that a little better? or Can you tell me more about that?
- How would you describe the team culture around this issue?
- Is there anything else you’d like to talk about today?
Open-Ended Question Examples (for Customers/Clients)
Open-ended questions are great when dealing with a client or customer. By nature, they open the conversation so that a resolution is reached sooner or a pain point is identified early on.
Open-ended questions will get the kinds of detailed responses and information that you really need.
- How did you first discover our services?
- Why did you choose to buy our product?
- What improvements have you noticed (if any) since using our services?
- If you could change anything about our product, what would it be and why?
- How do our products make you feel?
- What do you feel has been the biggest benefit of using our services?
- What do you need that we’re not currently providing?
Potential Issues With Open-Ended Questions
It’s important to bear in mind that some people may feel uncomfortable with open-ended questions, especially if you’re not providing enough guidance or direction as you ask them; some people may worry that they’re rambling, wonder why you’re asking the question in the first place, or feel unsure about how much detail you want them to go into.
Another potential downside to open-ended questions is that they can be a little vague, which can be a problem if you’re short on time. In The Art of the Open-Ended Question, a government training resource for caseworkers working with disadvantaged families, they share some helpful tips for using open-ended questions effectively, including:
- It can be helpful to use open-ended questions as follow-up questions to simpler or more straightforward questions. For example, “Are you enjoying working on this project?” and “Can you tell me a bit more about why/why not?”
- If someone seems uncomfortable answering your questions, try to simplify them and clarify what it is that you’d like them to share, and why it would be helpful for you to know their thoughts on it.
- Consider scrapping a question or changing the wording if it’s becoming problematic.
- If you’re short on time or the person you’re talking to is going off-topic, ask a follow-up question that is more specific.
- Try to build on the previous question that you asked, reflecting back on what you’ve heard from the person you’re talking to, and confirming that you’ve understood their answer correctly before you move on.
Mastering the art of open-ended questions definitely takes a little practice, but it’s well worth it. You’ll find your communication improves, resulting in deeper insights and more innovative thinking for everyone involved.
