How a Professional Keynote Speaker uses the Power of Questions to Transform your Internal Management Event.

Questions are powerful tools. When used consciously they can multiply the impact of your Internal Management Event, because they increase the experience of learning and retaining information.

The purpose of this article is to show you how a Professional Keynote Speaker can multiply the success of your Internal Management Event by using the power of questions, backed by science.

Questions Transform.

At the heart of every great organisation is a question, not an answer. I believe that it is an organisations’ ability to repeatedly ask their core question that guides leadership, fuels innovation, and inspires communication.

At the heart of every great organisation is a question.

Of course, in every organisation, there are many questions to be asked, however, there is always one question around which all the others revolve. In most cases, this one core question can answer all the other questions.

Repeatedly asking your core question is crucial, because it reminds everyone of what is behind your Vision. So one of the key characteristics of successful organisations is their ability to ask the right questions. For more see our article: What is the Real Purpose of a Keynote Speech?

Questions drive leadership, innovation, & communication.

Questions Inform.

You can use questions to multiply the impact of your Internal Management Event by hiring a Professional Keynote Speaker who asks the right ones. You want your audience to learn, and to remember as much as possible from the event, and this is where asking questions can help.

When we hear a question we cannot think of anything else. As neuroscience suggests¹ we can think of only one idea at a time. Thinking about an answer to a specific question increases the probability of remembering the information regarding the topic of the question.

1. Earl K. Miller, professor of neuroscience at MIT, says that we cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. His research focuses on neural mechanisms of memory, learning and cognition.

This is backed up by further research that highlights what happens when we hear a question: a process in the brain called instinctive elaboration² is initiated. This releases the chemical of serotonin followed by a rush of dopamine, which affects learning and memory. If dopamine is released during an event or experience, we are much more likely to remember the details of that particular event. Moreover, dopamine increases focus, so we are much more likely to pay close attention when it is released.

So it is clear that questions are an effective way of learning and retaining information. For more insights see our article: A Keynote Speech is the Right Balance Between Entertainment & Information.

2. Questions trigger a mental reflex called instinctive elaboration. This means that when a question is asked, it takes over the brain's thought processes. When the brain is contemplating a question, it cannot focus on anything else. Therefore, when you ask someone a question, you force their minds to consider only your question. According to neuroscientist John Medina, research shows “that we cannot multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously”.

Questions Perform.

Finally, questions are powerful because they stimulate the audience to be active learners³, instead of just passive recipients of the information. Even unconsciously, questions stimulate the audience to interact with information by thinking about possible answers, since the brain is hard-wired to want to be able to answer questions⁴.

3. In education, posing questions to students is one of the key elements of active learning, as thinking about questions makes them more likely to retain and learn information.
4. Humans are hardwired to think of an answer to a question-based stimulus. Even if our rational mind decides not to answer a certain question, it still shapes our thoughts.

In this regard questions are dynamic. They are catalysts for igniting curiosity and guiding thought processes. By asking questions the structure of interaction moves from static to dynamic. Questions are dynamic. Answers are static.

The right question is worth a thousand answers.

A Professional Keynote Speaker understands this and will work with questions to build a relationship with the people in the room. Instead of just building a case for their ideas.

The right questions can transform your teams and organisation. Book a Professional Keynote Speaker to help you use questions to retain information, make experiences memorable, and multiply the success of your Internal Management Event.