The Power of Questions

The Power of Questions is a book on questioning methods by Frank Sesno, an Emmy Award-winning American journalist and former CNN anchor. With more than four decades of global reporting experience, he has interviewed five U.S. presidents as a White House correspondent, as well as Nobel laureates, world leaders and business figures, and teaches "The Art of the Interview" at George Washington University. Drawing on experience observed in master questioners over long practice, he distills eleven commonly used questioning models: diagnostic, strategic, empathic, bridging, confrontational, creative, mission, scientific, interview, entertainment and legacy questions. The book weaves the methods through a wealth of real cases: diagnostic questions help a nurse uncover the causes of illness in patients in a poor community who will not open up; empathic questions let a therapist enter a client's inner world; confrontational questions let Oprah Winfrey use a string of yes-or-no questions to draw out the truth about Armstrong's doping; creative questions lead to Uber's idea of "ride like a millionaire." The author stresses that "asking a question already solves half the problem": questions reflect who we are, where we are going and how we communicate with others; they help us break through barriers, uncover secrets, clarify puzzles and win support. The final chapter, "The Question Guide," condenses the key techniques for the eleven question types and listening skills into a handy checklist for use in meetings, negotiations, interviews, media interviews and everyday conversation.