The question was deeply earnest.
“We’ve talked about it a lot amongst ourselves, and really hope you can answer this:”
“If you were locked in a room with nothing but celery, as much celery as you could eat, would you die?”
The room erupted in a wave of snorts and stifled chuckles. Then, we waited to see how the presenter would handle this unexpected question.
The scene was a nutrition presentation at my Vermont rowing camp this summer. The audience was half older master rowers and half high school-aged boys, and it was one of the high schoolers who was asking. The rest of the boys seemed to take the question seriously, while the adults were busy hiding their giggles.
Besides being incredibly amused, I had a particular interest in what happened next.
I’m coaching scientist leaders on communicating effectively with non-expert and executive audiences. How to respond to impromptu questions is a frequent and relevant topic (as it may be for you, too).
So how did the presenter respond to the celery question, and what do you think of her approach?
- First, she answered the question straightforwardly. (Briefly – yes, you will die.)
- Second, she tied the response back to one of her main points, something along the lines of, it’s the combination of foods you eat that matters.
- Third, she firmly shut down that line of questioning when another boy asked, “But what if you were locked in a room with just milk?”
Let’s now imagine that this scene is not occurring lakeside in Vermont, but in a conference room. Your CEO has just asked, let’s call it, an offbeat question. You can try the “Vermont approach”: Answer the question briefly, tie it back to your main points, and move on.
It wasn’t until later that I realized the most important insight from the experience.
The question and answer really mattered to the person asking. Never mind that the presenter may have been internally rolling her eyes, and the audience was highly amused, I don’t believe the teenager would have spoken up if it hadn’t been important to them.
And I think sometimes, especially when we’re an expert, we forget this – that when someone asks a question they care about the answer, care enough to speak up. It’s easy to feel frustrated by an off-base or unclear question, and maybe even to feel momentarily superior when someone asks a question that’s obvious or irrelevant to us. But, it’s not irrelevant to them.
It’s definitely worth acquiring and practicing the skills to answer impromptu questions with calm and confidence (and I can help you with that). I believe it’s equally important to approach answering a question as an act of generous collaboration between you and the questioner, regardless of your different perspectives and expertise.
In other words – and this comes up a lot for me – focus on the people, not just the facts.
And, eat a balanced diet.
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