Sparking discussion is among the many skills facilitators develop with practice. If you’re a facilitator, you may know the satisfaction of moderating a deeply engaged group conversation. Some groups need more coaxing than others. Success often relies on knowing which types of open-ended facilitation questions to ask and how to ask them.
Facilitators pose questions for many reasons, including:
- To engage the audience
- To have them explore concepts you’ve presented
- To gather information from them
Questions, in their simplest form, can either be open or closed. Both types of questions have use for facilitators.
Closed questions ask people to recall and repeat information or to reply with a simple yes or no. They’re helpful when you need to take control of the process or move things along to save time.
Open questions help people think deeply. They encourage imagination and new ideas. They also invite sharing opinions and experiences.
When you want to spur discussion within a group, you need more open-ended questions. Let’s look at a few types of open-ended questions for facilitators you may want to add to your toolbox.
9 types of open-ended facilitation questions
These open-ended questions are helpful as discussion starters or follow-ups. They can also redirect the course of a conversation.
If you aren’t accustomed to using these types of open-ended questions, write a few examples of each as you prepare for your next session.
1. Prediction questions ask your audience to engage their imaginations, project into the future, and play out ideas and concepts.
Example: How might a team who struggles with accountability react in that situation?
2. Justifying questions are great for following up individual statements or opinions, requiring the commenter to provide evidence or support. Present the question as a simple request for more information, not as a challenge to the speaker’s intelligence.
Example: Can you give me an example of when you’ve seen that happen?
3. Storybook questions are essential when you’re trying to tease out the full details of a situation or an event. I call them “storybook” questions because they ask you, as the questioner, to think like an inquisitive child being told a bedtime story: “And then what happened? What did it look like? Was it scary? And did the boy escape?”
To draw out the full story from an audience or individual, keep asking questions until you have a complete portrait of the event—or at least the details you need to relate it to the discussion at hand.
Examples: How did you feel when that person challenged you? Where were you sitting when you were at the team meeting?
4. Clarifying questions help make sure you or others are understanding the material or keeping up with the conversation. Clarifying questions give speakers the chance to expand on their ideas.
Examples: Can you put that another way? Could you explain that term: “carve-out”?
5. Comparative questions require listeners to make connections or contrasts.
Example: How might D-style and i-style team members respond to ambiguity?
6. Connective questions ask listeners to make links between the material and their own lived experiences.
Example: Does this resonate with what you experience in your work environment? How?
7. Return questions bounce a rephrased question back to the questioner, or ask for comment on the original question. This is a great technique to use if you’re not sure where the question is coming from or if you sense there’s a question behind the question.
Example: I’m not sure about the point you’re making, Phil. What prompted the question?
8. Relay questions pass a rephrased question from one person to another, encouraging conversation within the group.
Example: Cheryl asked how her team might increase their trust. Do you have any ideas for her, Pam?
9. Summary and synthesis questions are valuable for checking the group’s understanding of what has been presented or said. They also help participants identify important ideas, making them easier to recall.
Examples: What are the one or two most important ideas that came out of this discussion? What do you understand better now about how your team functions?
Sample open-ended questions for facilitators of DiSC and Five Behaviors trainings
Open-ended questions lead to better discussions in both group settings and one-on-one coaching sessions. For example, instead of asking a coaching client, “Were you surprised by your DiSC assessment results?” try, “What aspects of your DiSC style resonate most with how you see yourself?”
Here are some more examples of open-ended questions that might be useful during Everything DiSC or Five Behaviors sessions.
- What strengths does your DiSC style bring to your team, and how can you leverage those more effectively?
- How do you think your DiSC style influences the way others perceive you?
- What do you appreciate most about working with people of different DiSC styles?
- What are some potential misunderstandings that could arise when working with a [specific DiSC style]?
- How can an understanding of DiSC styles improve the way your team handles conflict?
- Talk about a time when your DiSC style helped you succeed or overcome a challenge.
- What could a team of mixed DiSC styles accomplish that a team of similar styles might not?
- What’s the “why” behind your perspective?
- How will you use your DiSC knowledge to improve your work relationships?
- What’s one thing you’d like others to understand about your DiSC style?
- What are some ways we can ensure everyone’s voice is heard in team discussions?
- How has your perspective on [topic of discussion] changed over time?
- What would be needed to make this idea work in practice?
- How can we use our differences as strengths when tackling complex problems?
- If there were no limits, what would be the ideal solution?
- What’s one idea or perspective from someone else that resonated with you?
- How will you apply what you’ve learned today to strengthen our team?
Oh, and one final tip about asking questions: bracket your questions with silence. Pause a few seconds before a question to emphasize its importance and give listeners time to focus. Pause directly after a question and resist saying more or repeating the question in a slightly different way. Give your listeners the space to consider the question and formulate a response.
Spending time expanding your repertoire of questions is well worth it. Your audience, trainees, and colleagues will appreciate it. You’ll also boost your credibility as a facilitator or trainer. If you want tips on responding to questions, see our post on managing Q&A sessions.
As author James Thurber noted, “It’s better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”
