interview

Power Of Question – Interview And Question Techniques To Ask Less And Receive More!

The fastest and most efficient way to acquire data, information and knowledge is to ask the RIGHT questions using the most PRECISE questioning techniques. Your listener will respond voluntarily and spontaneously, and you gain respect and trust in return! 

 

And there are questioning strategies too: how to assess a response to be genuine and complete; when to heave, howl or hold back your queries.  

 

Probing questions, using Socratic techniques, is also a useful way to brainstorm new ideas and to improve existing ones; to unravel truths and dispel fake news. Once you start to question, there is no end to the answers! 

 

(Please note that this course is not about interrogation techniques although this form of questioning would be discussed.) 

 

OUR TRAINER has been asking questions and getting answers all his life.  He started as a deputy chief in a military security agency where precision questioning was needed to ascertain the cause, extent and culpabilities in all forms of damage assessment. Later, he spent a decade teaching new reporters at the Singapore Press Holdings to scoop for news stories at its prestigious School of Journalism. He also represented the Singapore Government at international seminars and regional forums, where the thrust and parry of questioning and counter-questioning is very much sweet dessert in a diplomatic discourse. 

 

Objectives 

At the end of the one-day programme, participants will be able to: 

  1. appreciate the power of question in any given scenario.
  2. acquire question techniques to derive answers and solutions.
  3. apply questioning strategies to get the most out of negotiations and interviews.

Outline 

PART ONE ON QUESTION TECHNIQUES  

  • deal with the various forms of asking questions, viz open and closed questions; funnel and probing questions and rhetorical questions. The aim is to provide you with a set of questioning skills to be used selectively in an interview or discussion. 

 

PART TWO ON QUESTION STRATEGIES 

  • provide negotiation, bargaining and transactional skills by way of asking skillful questions. The aim is to allow you to be on top of any situation where you have to deal with difficult people and challenging circumstances. 

 

Who should attend 

Frontline and Staff Officers who either have to deal with tough situations or difficult people, or who need the skill set to create new ideas and improve existing ones. These questions would also be helpful for those needing to put up a complete report with no ‘holes’ and gaps.  

 

Testimonials 

“I call Sunny a ‘wily fox’ in the most complimentary of ways. He knows when to ask, when not to ask – always to extract the best out of a potential situation.”  

  • PUB (Jan 2017)  

 

“Sunny’s question techniques help to open my mind’s eyes to endless possibilities in ideation.  I wasn’t sure that questions not only lead to answers, it can lead to new journeys and new directions.” 

  • Chapman International (Feb 2018) 

 “I have always thought people would get put off by a barrage of questions hurled at them. The trainer has helped me to appreciate quite the opposite – it can equally be a way to gain trust and earn respect.”  

  • NTU (June 2018) 

 

Trainer’s Profile 

Sunny is a Trainer of Trainers (TOT) and has taught many motivational and writing coaches to use different question techniques to augment their investigation, interview or negotiation. He was a deputy military security chief and head of the International directorate in Mindef’s Defence Policy Office. As a desk editor in The Straits Times, he has trained rookie reporters in the art of questions and interview techniques to get the best out of their sources. He was a member of the SAF Scholars Selection Board and chairman of a university’s Resource Panel. He is currently board director of five international firms where clean communication is essential to winning contracts, clients and confidence.