Questioning
Open, probe, clarify, close
Take a conversation from broad exploration to something specific enough to use.
The shape
- Open
- Probe
- Clarify
- Close
Why that order
Beginning broad surfaces what you did not know to ask about. Narrowing turns it into something actionable. Doing either alone gives you a pleasant conversation or an interrogation.
A worked example
- Open
- Tell me what is happening with the project.
- Probe
- Where is the biggest difficulty?
- Clarify
- When you say requirements keep changing, who is changing them and at what stage?
- Close
- So the immediate issue is requirement stability. Let us start there.
What usually goes wrong
Closing too early, before there is enough on the table to close on.
Used in
Where this shape does its work in a real situation.
Practise it
Knowing the shape is about ten minutes of work. Running it while somebody senior is looking at you is a different thing, and that is what these are for.
Mostly serves Connection, and reaches into Intent and Message.
A framework tells you what shape the answer takes. It cannot tell you whether shape is what you are short of, and for most people it is not. Which one is yours, and whether a framework is the right instrument at all, is what a Discovery Call is for.
Take the AssessmentOr read the whole glossary first.