Master QnA Sessions With These 8 Powerful Frameworks
Discover the Techniques Used by Top Speakers to Craft Powerful and Convincing Responses in Any Situation
Ever wondered how politicians expertly respond or avoid answering questions? In this blog post, we'll share steps to help you answer questions effectively, allowing you time to think and connect the question to your areas of expertise or talking points.
Step 1: Acknowledge the Question
Rephrase or repeat the question to:
Validate that you understood it correctly: "You are asking me..."
Highlight important concepts in the question.
Acknowledge the person who asked the question.
Sometimes, a simple "Thank you for that question" suffices.
Step 2: If Needed, Define or Redefine Terms
This is where politicians often reframe concepts to better fit their point: "You are talking about democracy, but what is democracy at its core? Democracy is..."
Ensure a shared understanding of the concepts and topic.
Buy time to regroup your thoughts and link the question to your talking points.
Step 3: Deliver Your Answer
Use one of the following frameworks to structure your response:
SCR (Situation, Challenge, Resolution) Framework: Describe the context, explain the specific problem, and share the steps taken to address the challenge.
Past-Present-Future Structure: Share relevant historical context, discuss the current state, and offer predictions or potential solutions for the issue moving forward.
PREP (Point, Reason, Example, Point) Framework: Clearly state your main point, explain the rationale, provide a concrete example, and reiterate your main point.
Immersive Story Structure (from Seth Godin): Start with a compelling story, summarize the key takeaway, build the reasoning behind your conclusion, and provide a call to action.
STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) Framework: Set the scene, explain the specific goal, describe the actions taken, and share the outcome or impact of your actions.
Pyramid Principle: Start with the main point, provide supporting arguments, and use evidence or examples to substantiate each supporting argument.
Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis Framework: State arguments from one side, acknowledge potential opposing viewpoints, and show how your position synthesizes them all (a.k.a. the truth is in the middle).
The Accusation Audit (from Chris Voss): Start by acknowledging possible opposing arguments, then offer counterarguments, and conclude by reframing the issue to offer a new perspective.
Which of these frameworks do you want to know more about?
Tell me in the comments, and I’ll post a detailed article about them.
Step 4: Give a Clear Takeaway
Summarize your main point and call to action at the end. Alternatively, end by returning a new question to your co-debater.
By employing these steps and frameworks, you can deliver well-structured, coherent, and persuasive responses to questions during a debate, round table, panel discussion, or Q&A session. Each framework serves a slightly different purpose, so choose the one that best aligns with the question being asked and the message you want to convey.