How to Ask the Best Probing Questions

Terry J. Fadem

Probing may be defined as aggressive follow-up questioning. However, you are not necessarily just interested in keeping a continuous line of discussion going. Probes are used to look for something other than what the discussion, the paper, or the message has provided. You probe when you encounter potential deceit, defensive behavior, half-truths, challenges, misdirected answers, dead experts, and any number of other conditions likely to occur.

I know a manager who asked questions with the answers in them, and then argued when his staff tried to tell him he was wrong. I saw him in action off and on for about two years. Not once did I ever see him probe any topic. Even if he disagreed with the ...