Do you invite or block questions?

Great trainers make sure they ask their learners if they have any questions about the content they've covered. Providing these opportunities for questions at regular intervals helps your learners to clarify their understanding and close any gaps they may have about the content. It also demonstrates to your learners that you want to support their learning and you're interested in their thoughts and concerns.

Allowing time for learners to ask their questions is incredibly important to the learning process, even if we're running late.   This is because when a learner has an unanswered question or is confused about a particular area, part of their brain might continue to try to work it out, and this can distract them from learning other topics throughout the training program.

Unfortunately, even though many trainers think they're regularly asking for questions, some actually inadvertently block their learners' willingness to ask questions.  Let me explain...

Some of the questions and statements that I've heard trainers say when offering their learners the opportunity to ask questions include:

• "Well, if there are no questions, we'll move on."
• "No questions?"
• "Well that was an easy topic...Are there any questions?"

Have you caught yourself saying any of these? They're certainly not very encouraging for your learners. In fact, they can send the message that you don't really want any questions and that you'd rather just move on with the training. The last example above actually implies that your learners would have to be silly or stupid to have any questions about "such an easy topic".  As trainers, this is definitely not the message we want to send to our learners!

So what do you say to encourage questions from your learners?

One of the most commonly used methods is to ask: "Are there any questions?" It seems fairly straight-forward enough and it's definitely better than those listed above... But is it really the best one to use? To be honest, it' s not really! In fact, this question is a "closed question", which means that you're really asking your learners to decide whether they have questions. The automatic response to this close question would be for learners to answer "yes" or "no". Once the learner has decided whether they have any questions, they would then need to formulate their questions. This adds a bit more thinking time, and let's face it, you don't need to waste any time in training.

I recommend bypassing this unnecessary step and going straight for the heart of the matter! Consider asking for learners' questions in a way that says "Hey, I really want your questions!"  A great way to do this is ask:

"So...what questions do you have about ?"

Not only does this get your learners to really think about any questions they might have, but it also implies that there "will" be questions, which means that if a learner does ask a question, they won't be seen as silly or stupid.  The other subtle impact of this method is that it shows your learners that you really want to help them by answering their questions, not just because the training guide says you should.

So in your next training session practise using "What questions do you have about ?" when inviting questions and notice how well your learners respond. Just don't forget to pause after you've asked to give them enough time to think of those great questions.  Great questions really do deepen the learning and boost your learners' outcomes and learning results.