Getting Unbiased Information

The Rationale
Managers as supervisors tend to be far more adept at asking highly structured, direct questions than indirect, open-ended ones. This is appropriate for obtaining certain kinds of information. At other times, such an approach will bias the other party to say what is expected or expedient or pleasing. No wonder the information managers obtain is often slanted or filtered or incomplete or whitewashed or dated or otherwise misleading. Since the quality of decisions made, problems solved, and actions taken depends on getting clean, unvarnished information as input, it is essential that managers learn to be equally adept at direct and non-direct questioning techniques, and to reorganize bias and correct for it in our daily communications.

Learning Objectives for the Workshop
Participants who attend this workshop will be able to:

• Define the ABC’s of interpersonal communication (Aim, Bias, Climate)
• Give examples of good and poor control of each
• Describe the funnel technique for eliciting information
• Give one example of each of the 3 types of funnel question
• Illustrate by example the difference between a response and a reply
• Identify 5 common types of probes and their advantages
• Edit and rephrase questions that are poorly worded
• Use each of the 5 probes in a typical interaction

Performance Criteria in the Workplace
Participants who attend this workshop will be able to:

• Recognize inadequate responses and probe for needed information
• Manage the ABC’s so as to steer an interaction to its desired outcome
• Apply the funnel technique in eliciting personal information
• Conduct an effective selection interview
• Prepare for fact-finding sessions (problem solving, counseling, etc.)
• Recognize ineffective questions and rephrase them
• Improve the quality of interpersonal communication in their work group
• Use non-directive techniques to elicit hard-to-get information