Questioning as a Spectator Sport: Where to Go to Watch and Learn the Game

The popularity of news interview shows and, of course, the ever-present game shows where contestants/celebrities must answer questions to win prizes (usually money) continue unabated on television. We participate by listening passively to all of these formats—interviews, news shows, television court, sports stories, and myriad other conversational offerings—so many that it is difficult to keep up with them all.

Television offers us an opportunity to learn from professional questioners, inquisitors, and interrogators. They can be viewed for their use of strategies, how their questions are composed, and the approaches they take in employing strategies. Because it is TV, you can observe their body language and facial expressions, and match them with the tone of the person asking.

Some of the people who conduct interviews or pose questions on inquiry-based news and investigational story shows can teach us about questions by example. Many are very good—they have to be just to capture enough viewers to entice sponsors to fund their broadcasts. A small number stand out as excellent examples that managers can learn from.

Four criteria are suggested for you to use in the evaluation of professional questioners:

1. The use of rules for disciplined approaches to questioning.
2. They employ multiple types of questions in each interaction.
3. The use of strategies as opposed to a script for asking questions. (They might, in fact, be working from a script, but their questioning appears natural and to be following a clear path.)
4. They appear always on the lookout for the “fatal flaw” in the discussion.

My personal list of people whom I believe are the best I have recently seen in this field is noted in the following table. I constructed a short list based on these criteria. That doesn’t mean that others are not equally good or even better interrogators than those on my list. Also, note that their presence on the list does not mean that I agree or disagree with their style, intent, or the views they may imply or express. It simply means that, in my opinion, they have mastered the art and the science of questioning.

Every one of the people on this list has a different style, but they all have one skill in common: They are expert in using questions as tools. They are not enamored of one particular kind of question or with one specific approach. Their job is to get answers, expose a story, or to learn something of interest from another person or situation. This is not unlike the job that managers face.

You will notice the presence of a comedian on this list. Many comedians use questions as the setup for their humor—for their punch lines. Why? Because the question gets the audience to participate by thinking of the answer, allowing the comedian, of course, to deliver an answer that is usually unexpected. In other words, you must answer; otherwise, there is no humor. You might think comedians are just up in front of audiences entertaining with jokes, but many of them are performing questions. In my opinion, Jerry Seinfeld does this better than anyone in the business. But that’s my opinion.

Many other professional questioners are equally good for managers to learn from, but they employ a limited number of techniques—some of them only a single approach. They are known by this approach, and it can be instructive for managers to consider when and where their techniques may work. I am not advocating that their styles be adopted but that you look past the form and into the substance of their skills.

There are many others for whom questioning is an art as well as a science. Many of the local media outlets around the country also have good interviewers who can serve as instructors for anyone wishing to examine their approaches.