Chapter Nine
Structurally Challenging Questions
Case Studies: John Stuart Mill • Helene Poirier, Cisco • Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing • Christian Sewing, Deutsche Bank • Ariana Grande • Roger Lynch, Condé Nast • Ed Bastian, Delta Airlines • Adam Kiciński, CD PROJEKT • Wang Xiang, Xiaomi • Angela Knight, British Bankers Association • Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz • Eddy Vataru, Osterweis Capital Management
To question all things…above all, to insist upon having the meaning of a word clearly understood before using it, and the meaning of a proposition before assenting to it 1
John Stuart Mill
February 1, 1867
From an early age, British philosopher John Stuart Mill was a scholar and writer whose profound ideas influenced political, economic, and social theory. Later in life, as the Lord Rector of the University of St. Andrews, he extended his influence to academia with the exhortation above, in which he expressed the need to ask challenging questions in order to make communication effective. Businesspeople, forever cautious, always want to understand “the meaning of a proposition before assenting to it”; and so, just like Cisco’s Helene Poirier in Chapter Two, business audiences ask challenging questions.
Those challenges often come in a variety of structural forms that make them hard to handle.
■ Negative Questions ■
Audiences have minds of their own, and sometimes they want to impose their ideas on the minds of the presenter. Let’s say that you are the CFO of a public company, and, during an earnings call, an analyst asked you:
This is the age of the mating dance: banks are consolidating, airlines and pharmaceutical companies are merging. Everybody’s throwing their lot in with others. Instead of going out there and fighting a holy war or trying to be the Lone Ranger, why don’t you merge or get acquired with one of the larger companies in your sector?
The subtext of this question is: Why don’t you do what the asker thinks you should do rather than what you just got finished spending your entire presentation telling the audience what you intend to do, which is to pursue sole market leadership.
If you, as presenter, spend any time dealing with “Why don’t you…?” questions, you will only invite more negative questions, and you’ll be swatting flies all day. Instead, turn the negative question positive by addressing only why you are doing what you said you’d be doing in the first place.
The Buffer is:
We’re pursuing market leadership on our own because…
Negative Questions in Action
(Video 19) Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg Answers Questions at the Company’s Shareholder Meeting (4:56) https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/04/29/boeing-ceo-dennis-muilenburg-answers-questions-at-the-companys-shareholder-meeting.html
After Boeing’s 737 Max 8 aircraft experienced two tragic crashes, CEO Dennis Muilenburg spoke at the company’s shareholder meeting, where he was asked:
In light of the crisis facing your company and, in the interests of re-earning the trust of the flying public, have you considered resigning?
Muilenburg had no intention of resigning and, in his reply, stated his determination to stay:
My clear intent is to continue to lead on the front of quality, safety, and integrity.2
Not only did Muilenburg stand his ground, but he did also so in positive terms.
(Video 20) Full Interview with Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/06/29/full-interview-with-deutsche-bank-ceo-christian-sewing.html
The day after the Federal Reserve Board released a negative report about Deutsche Bank, the large German investment bank and financial services firm, the company’s CEO Christian Sewing appeared on CNBC’s Business News where anchor Wilfred Frost asked him a “Why don’t you…?” question:
The Fed said you had, quote, widespread and critical deficiencies in your capital planning controls for the U.S. unit.…Given the size of the U.S. unit—relative to the total bank, relatively small, and the problems it’s causing you—do you ever consider just getting rid of it as part of the restructuring?
Sewing had no intention of getting rid of the U.S. unit:
No, not at all. I mean, for various reasons. Number one, look at the size of the U.S. operations, what it makes for all of Deutsche Bank. The U.S. is next to Germany one of the most important markets we are in. And that will remain the case.3
Neither Muilenburg nor Sewing was about to do what their interrogators asked them to do. Nor should you. Both executives affirmed their intention to continue to do exactly what they were doing. If you get a “Why don’t you…?” question, simply default to the positive and respond with what you intend to do.
■ Irrelevant Questions ■
How come your logo doesn’t have a space between the two words?
This type of question usually results in a snicker, an eye roll, or a frown from presenters, each of which expresses condescending disdain to the asker. In absolute fact of the matter, there is no such thing as an irrelevant question. A question may only seem irrelevant because presenters are so intently focused on their own points of view.
To paraphrase the famous line from the film Field of Dreams, “If they ask it, you must answer it.” Every audience member has every right to ask any question and every question they ask is relevant and appropriate. You can inhibit the snicker, eye roll, or frown with a Buffer to the Key Words:
We chose our logo design because…
Irrelevant Questions in Action
(Video 21) Ariana Grande Scolds Power106 Radio DJs About Equality in Awkward Interview (Be Yourselfie) https://youtu.be/cTCD65AyXxA?t=33
The pop singer Ariana Grande was confronted with an irrelevant question when she went on a radio show to promote the release of her new song. One of the DJs had a different subject in mind when he asked:
If you could use makeup or your phone one last time, which one would you pick?
Unruffled by a question that was not only unrelated to her new song—but also patently sexist—Grande responded graciously by smiling and saying:
Is that what you think—girls have trouble choosing?
Undeterred, the DJ pressed Grande about his subject:
Yeah, absolutely! Can you really go anywhere without your cell phone? How long can you go without looking…?
With complete assurance, Grande interrupted:
Many hours at a dinner table. I like to be present and talking and making eye contact.4
■ Multiple Questions ■
Given all the mental forces you read about in the preceding chapters—Fast Thinking, emotion, self-consciousness—many questions in Q&A sessions are usually formed as multiple questions, creating a major challenge for the presenter.
Let’s say you are a CFO, and you get this question from an analyst:
How much did you spend on R&D last year? What percentage of your revenues did that represent, and what is your R&D model going forward?
Any financial person could easily handle all three questions because they are all related. And any presenter can handle multiple related questions about their area of expertise. The challenge arises when one of the questions is from left field, another from right field, and another from the Moon.
What many presenters do in these circumstances is to begin to answer one question and, eager to be thorough, dive deep into the details—during which they lose track of the other questions—at which point, the presenter often turns to the questioner and asks:
What was your other question?
The audience perception: “You weren’t listening!”
You are not obliged to remember someone else’s long, nonlinear Fast Thinking ramble. Moreover, if you try to hold one question in reserve while you are processing the one you are answering, you will overload your thinking process. It’s like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time.
Instead pick only one of the multiple questions: the easiest, the hardest, the last, the first, the one that surprised you, or the one that you were expecting. Buffer that question, answer it, and then turn back to the person who asked it and, in a declarative statement, say:
You had another question.
That statement will produce one of two responses. Either the questioner will restate the question, in which case you are off the hook, or the questioner will say:
That’s all right, you covered it.
Here, too, you are off the hook. The latter response is quite common because most people can’t remember their own long, nonlinear Fast Thinking rambles.
Either way, you are free to either answer the second question or to move on to another questioner.
Multiple Questions in Action
(Video 22) Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch | Full Interview | Code Media 2019 https://youtu.be/ag6BwufkL_Q?t=1557
When Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch appeared at the CodeMedia conference, host Peter Kafka opened the floor to questions. A reporter with Women’s Wear Daily stood up and asked Lynch this double question:
I have two questions actually. One, it kind of sounds like the strategy around the paywall maybe has changed. Are you still going to put every magazine behind a paywall, as was originally announced, or is it just a focus on the core kind of four properties that are already there? And also, how many magazines do you think Condé will publish in five years?
Lynch began by Buffering to her second question:
So, first of all, to level set we have 38 brands…
He went on to give a very thorough answer about the company’s magazines—that lasted a minute and fifteen seconds—when he suddenly realized he had forgotten all that the reporter wanted to know, so he asked her:
So, what was the rest of your question?
She wanted to know more about Condé Nast’s magazines:
So, more magazines will go digital over the years?
Lynch replied:
I don’t know. I think that—I think we have a playbook that has shown how magazines can be successful as digital only. But I think it depends on the type of content that exists for the magazine. So, it’s possible but right now I think we’ve got a pretty good balance.
He stopped and waited for her reaction. She gave it to him:
Okay…
But then she reminded him that he hadn’t answered the first question:
…and then the other question was around the paywall strategy.5
Because the reporter had said she has two questions, Lynch courteously started his reply with “First of all….” But that became a trap for him. By committing himself to answer both questions and, despite having provided a thorough answer to one, by losing track of the second, he appeared not to have listened.
(Video 23) Delta CEO Ed Bastian | Full Interview | Code 2019 https://youtu.be/FeFRmb08ep4?t=1743
Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian found himself in a similar situation when he invited questions from the Code conference audience. A man stepped up to a microphone and asked Bastian a double question:
Two questions for you. Your best clients, I’m a Diamond for as long as they existed, but Delta has led the industry in actually devaluing frequent fliers for their most loyal customers. You mentioned, citing upgrading from coach to first, that took away the traditional upgrades. So, tell me, one, how do you feel about the importance of the customer, your most loyal customers? And lastly, how are you going to compete with Mint on JetBlue domestically?
Bastian began his answer with a perfect Buffer:
First question, on loyalty…
He then provided a very thorough and well-informed answer that went on for a minute and twenty-five seconds—when he suddenly realized that he had forgotten the gist of the second question:
I didn’t get the question about JetBlue.6
After the man reminded him that it was about competing with JetBlue Mint, Bastian launched into a strong, assertive answer that positioned JetBlue as a niche player and Delta as the leader. To Bastian’s credit, he remembered that the second question was about JetBlue, just not the specific subject. When he realized that he had forgotten, all he had to do was say: “You had another question about JetBlue...”
Although Bastian did better than Lynch with multiple questions, these two examples provide an important lesson: avoid enumeration. The questioner did say “Two questions…,” but Bastian needn’t have begun his response by saying, “First question…” because that committed him to remembering that there was a second. If he had begun with “On loyalty…,” then all he would have had to do is deal with that subject and leave it to the questioner to remember the JetBlue question.
Some presenters can enumerate multiple questions, commit to a number, and remember them all.
Adam Kiciński, the joint CEO of CD PROJEKT, a video game developer, was confident he could do all of the above. During a call with investors to apologize for a three-week delay in releasing the company’s latest game, he got a long three-part question right out of the gate:
Good evening. I’ve got three questions. My first one—going back to what you said in the middle of June, when you last delayed the game—I think you specifically ruled out delaying it again beyond November 19. My question is—why is it different this time; why you’re confident that you can get this game out on December 10? Secondly, you mentioned in your comments that “we have an amazing game on our hands.” Could you provide some feedback that you’ve been getting from testing on how the game plays, and we can get comfortable—when we actually get the game out?…And thirdly—longer term…how confident are you that you are going to be able to handle getting multiplayer out in two years?
Kiciński committed to answering all three questions:
Thank you for your questions. Starting with the first one…
He continued with a very thorough answer and then concluded with:
…I’ll pass the second question to Michał because he has recently been playing the game quite heavily, so perhaps he can share his own opinion, too.
When Michał finished his answer, he turned the floor back to Kiciński, who promptly resumed the countdown with a Buffer to the Key Words:
And the third question, about future projects… 7
While Kiciński was able to keep track of multiple questions by delegating one of them to a colleague, Wang Xiang, the Xiaomi president, whose effective handling of a contingency question you read about in the previous chapter, was equally effective in handling both parts of a long two-part question—on his own.
The contingency question (about potential competition in the AIoT space) was actually the second of two that Yingbo Xu, the CITIC analyst, asked. To the CEO’s further credit, he had to extract the Key Word from the analyst’s long ramble of the first question:
My first question is about the Internet sector. Take the Internet sector as an overall, we find that the cellphone companies face difficulties in the same area in the second quarter — second half last year. But however, we still got double-digit increase in Internet revenue. So we think that is good. Could you please give us more colors on this year's Internet revenue increase? This is my first question.
And the second one related to AIoT…
After the analyst finished asking the second question, Wang Xiang retook the floor and, clearly confident he could remember them, promptly committed to answering both:
Sure. Let me take the Internet question first.
He then spent the next two minutes and five seconds providing a full answer about the internet, during which he kept the AIoT question in mind. When he finished, he went directly to the second question without missing a beat, and began with a Buffer to the Key Word:
In terms of the AIoT competition….8
Although Adam Kiciński and Wang Xiang were able to handle multiple questions, make it easy on yourself by handling only one question at a time.
■ Statements ■
Sometimes audiences express their opinions, doubts, or resistance to a presenter’s premise in statements rather than in questions. Let’s say you are a product manager who has finished a presentation about a new product to an audience of existing customers. You open the floor to questions and call on one person who says:
Your new product appears to be quite effective, but you’ve only just released it. We don’t want to be the only kid on the block with a product that doesn’t have traction. We’ve been there before—incompatibility, difficult-to-find service, limited replacements—I’d like to see if it picks up steam and gains traction in the market before I commit.
That is not a question, and if you were trying to land a sale for the early release of your new product, you would hardly want to leave the exchange at that point with no sale. Instead, you can respond to the statement in one of two ways. First, turn the statement into a rhetorical question with a Buffer to the Key Word, in this case, time:
Why adopt our new product now?
You can then provide your own answer by giving the customer more reasons to be an early adopter of your promising new product.
The second response would be to start with an assertive statement:
The reason to adopt our product now is…
In both cases, you can then go on to list the many benefits of being an early adopter—and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Statement in Action
(Video 24) Barclays Scandal: Interview with BBA’s Angela Knight https://youtu.be/ga6FX7fVdMI?t=151
In what was supposed to be an interview on Britain’s Channel 4 News, journalist Jon Snow unleashed an angry tirade at Angela Knight, the CEO of the British Bankers Association and her organization:
This is devastating! Here we have an absolute core element of the banking system in the City of London which was completely running amok as far as we can tell from what the FSA has already said of what they’re investigating. And what Barclays already proved. And you appeared to have known nothing about it, done nothing about it, and don’t even seem to have much power to do anything about it now!
Maintaining her poise, Knight gave Snow the courtesy of turning his tirade into a question:
Perhaps if you’d like to let me give you the answer, it would be appropriate…
And then she answered:
Yes, the checking undertaken of the contributions, the further analysis of what all the banks contributed in the way of the rates is undertaken, and by experts—not by a trade association—but by experts.9
Sometimes media hosts forget that their role in an interview is to ask questions and instead climb up on the soap box to show off or to pontificate on their own opinion. And sometimes business audiences ramble so far into the weeds, they neglect to pose a question. In any of these cases, the presenter can put the exchange back on track with a Buffer to the key issue.
(Video 25) Prof. Mohamed El-Erian Interview on Global Economy—Wharton Business Daily, SiriusXM https://youtu.be/FYiOjMD2yW4?t=647
During an interview on Wharton Business Daily, host Dan Loney posed a series of questions to Professor Mohamed El-Erian, president of Queen’s College at Cambridge University and chief economic adviser at Allianz, the giant German multinational financial services company. At one point, however, Loney made a statement that was not a question:
I wanted to bring it back here to the U.S. and talk about the Federal Reserve if we can for a moment—and if you go by some of the recent statements by Jerome Powell, the expectation is that the pattern of accommodative policy is going to continue for the foreseeable future.
The well-informed and well-connected professor could see that Loney was looking for a forecast about “the foreseeable future” of the eagerly-sought-after Fed policy. El-Erian generously gave it to him:
That’s absolutely correct…
And then he Buffered to the Roman Column of the forecast:
It comes as no surprise to me that the Federal Reserve keeps on guiding forward, that it will remain low for very long, they will continue buying assets for very long, and the hope is you’ll get the policy handoff.10
El-Erian’s “That’s absolutely correct” assertive reply to Loney is just how you should reply to the doubting Thomas who was reluctant to be an early adopter of your product.
Take a stand. Convert non-questions into statements.
■ Questions About Presented Content ■
A common question raised in Q&A sessions is one about material that was thoroughly covered during the presentation. For instance, after a presenter delivers a pitch detailing all the new features of a new product release, someone in the audience asks a question about one of those very features:
Can this new product…?
In an internal company meeting, this type of question usually results in audible groans from the others in the room. At an external event, the other audience members, being discrete, stifle their groans but regard the person who asked it with impatient disdain. Presenters, being discrete and hopefully respectful, will also stifle groans but all too often begin their answer by saying:
As I said…
This seemingly innocuous phrase belies the presenter’s own impatience with the questioner. Worse still, are the presenters who begin their answers by saying “Like I said…”—a phrase that is not only condescending, but also ungrammatical.
Instead, answer the question as if you’ve never covered the subject. Say:
Absolutely! Our new product performs that feature better than any other product on the market!
You are then free to recap the main features of your new product. Resist the temptation, however, to repeat the original material in as much detail as you did in the presentation. Be grateful for the gift and be succinct.
Avoid any back references.* By doing so, you earn three important benefits:
* One important note about avoiding back references: in Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story and Designing Your Slides, I recommend using back references as a highly effective technique to create narrative continuity in your story. However, when you conclude your story and move into the free-fire zone of Q&A sessions, the dynamics change—and so do the rules. Make no back references to your presentation.
Reinforce Your Content. Without a back reference, a succinct restatement is a free kick.
Validate the Questioner. The “As I said” or “Like I said” invalidates the questioner.
Create a Positive Perception. By being respectful of the questioner, you show grace under pressure.
Most people in the audience will have heard you cover the content in question—except the person whose mobile phone vibrated, drawing their attention away from you. When the rest of the audience observes you react patiently with no back reference, they perceive you as a person in control. Cool under fire.
Questions About Presented Content in Action
(Video 26) Webinar REPLAY—A Roadmap for Fixed Income Investing in a Low Rate Environment https://www.osterweis.com/video/OSTRX-Roadmap-Webinar
A webinar hosted by Osterweis Capital Management, an asset management company, featured a 40-minute, 18-slide presentation delivered by Eddy Vataru, the head of the company’s Fixed Income team. After that, webinar host Shawn Eubanks, Osertweis’s director of business development, invited listeners to submit questions into the chat box and then turned to Vataru to say:
Eddy, while we’re waiting, you mentioned that sector rotation can be a big source of returns, even when yields are low in the market overall. How do you and your team go about determining your sector weightings in your strategy?
Vataru responded:
Sure. Well, we use that qualitatively, I would say we use the chart that I showed a little bit earlier that demonstrated the various risk factors across the asset classes.11
It would have been impossible for anyone listening to the webinar to go back through the slides to find the “risk factors across the asset classes” chart. Vataru would have done better to describe the chart as if it were the first time.
Make no back references in Q&A.
■ Summary ■
The Buffer controls each of these structurally challenging questions:
Neutralizes hostile questions.
Turns negative questions positive.
Treats seemingly irrelevant questions the same as all other questions.
Manages multiple questions efficiently.
Converts charged statements into rhetorical questions.
Handles questions about presented material with equanimity.
The Buffer also helps control questions that are not challenging, such as:
Could you please tell us how you plan to market your company in this competitive environment?
Simply say:
Our marketing plan includes…
Then roll into your answer.
As the Swiss Army Knife of Q&A sessions, the Buffer offers a rich array of benefits.
Eight Buffer Benefits
“I heard you!” This is the sine qua non of any Q&A session. It tells the questioner—and the rest of the audience—that you listened.
Thinking Time. Thinking is a most critical asset, especially when you are on the spot.
Neutralize. By using only nouns and verbs—not adjectives and adverbs—the Buffer removes any inherent negativity and allows you to proceed in full control without being defensive or contentious.
Condense. There is no need to carry forward the nonlinear ramble of a long question.
Verbalize. Verbalization is a powerful practice technique in which you speak aloud the actual words in your presentation and, in doing so, crystallize them. By Verbalizing the Buffer of a question, you clarify the Roman Column in your own mind. (You will find a fuller discussion of Verbalization in the section on how to prepare for Q&A in Chapter Fifteen).
Trigger the Answer. When you have identified the Key Word(s) in your mind, your answer follows readily. For instance, if you were to get a question about how your company competes, you are very likely able to provide an answer on the spot.
Audibility. Everyone in the audience hears the question you will answer.
Head Nods. When you Buffer correctly, your questioner cannot help but concur that you have identified the issue. Head nods release you to move forward into your answer.
A head nod from a questioner is completely involuntary. In our Suasive coaching sessions, I engage clients in an exercise in which they fire tough questions at one another. If the person who is asked the question Buffers correctly, the person who asked the question invariably nods in agreement. If the Buffer is wrong, the asker does not nod. In fact, the wrong Buffer often produces a frown or a shake of the head. Even though the exercise is a simulation and the participants are peers or colleagues rather than adversaries, askers always nod at the correct Buffer.
Eight benefits just for a one- or two-Key Word Buffer.
The second most important benefit is thinking time, but the Key Word Buffer reduces that interval down to a split second—and the pressure of being the center of attention in front of a (virtual or live) room reduces it even further with stress-induced time warp. You can lengthen your thinking time with longer-form Buffers that you’ll learn about in the next chapter.