With a little planning and thought beforehand, you can craft questions as an effective way to measure their team’s knowledge on a subject. Instead, ask an open-ended question. The root of all worthy questions is a desire to fill in a gap in your understanding of something. 1. Don’t Ask Yes or No Questions. Here are five things to consider when phrasing your questions: According to Harvard Business School research, people shy away from questions for a few reasons. The Better Questions communications workshop is a fun and informative workshop and gives you the tools you need to unlock the full potential of people you interact with. When you ask a yes or no question, you will most often get incomplete information. What you get by asking While going into your team or one-on-one meetings with a list of questions rather than points to be made takes some thoughtful planning, the payoff can be huge. Related: 6 Questions I Ask Before I Say ‘Yes’ to Anything. To ask a good question requires two things: an insight and gumption. We don’t always get it right, especially in a learning setting, but there is definitely an art of asking better questions. How can I learn to ask better questions? We ask questions every day. By using an open-ended question you get insights and additional information you might not have known existed. Ultimately asking questions makes you a better leader.” But there’s a right way and a wrong way to ask.